DNA-SEQUENCE RESEMBLING VANA AND VANB IN THE VANCOMYCIN-RESISTANT BIOPESTICIDE BACILLUS-POPILLIAE

The origin of high-level vancomycin resistance in enterococci is unkno wn. Biopesticidal powders containing spores of Bacillus popilliae, whi ch is vancomycin-resistant, have been used for >50 years in the United States for suppression of Japanese beetle populations. Using a polyme rase chain reaction assay designed to amplify the vanB gene in enteroc occi, an amplicon in B. popilliae was identified and sequenced. The pu tative ligase gene in B. popilliae had 76.8% and 68.4%-68.9% nucleotid e identity to the sequences of the vanA and vanB genes, respectively. There was 75.3% and 69.3%-69.9% identity between the translation of th e putative ligase gene in B. popilliae and the translation of the vanA and vanB genes, respectively. We have identified a gene resembling va nA and vanB in B. popilliae, The gene in B. popilliae may have been a precursor to or have had an ancestral gene in common with vancomycin r esistance genes in enterococci.