Ri. Vazquezpadron et al., BIOCHEMICAL-CHARACTERIZATION OF THE 3RD DOMAIN FROM BACILLUS-THURINGIENSIS CRY1A TOXINS, Biochemistry and molecular biology international, 45(5), 1998, pp. 1011-1020
Cry proteins from Bacillus thuringiensis have insecticidal properties.
The function of domains I and II has been described but domain III ha
s so far eluded understanding. Domain III from Cry1Ab and Cry1Ac has b
een cloned, expressed in E. coli and injected to rabbits with the aid
of characterizing them immunologically. Interestingly, polyclonal anti
bodies against Cry1Ab fragment did not recognize either the native Cry
1Ab toxin or the Cry1Ac fragment while those against the latter did re
cognize either the native Cry1Ac toxin or the Cry1Ab protein fragment.
A combination of information from sequence comparison and hydrophobic
ity profile indicates that these protein fragments possibly adopt diff
erent spatial dispositions within the respective toxins.