Complete nucleotide sequence and identification of a putative promoter region for the expression in Escherichia coli of the cryIA(b) gene from Bacillus thuringiensis var. aizawai HD133.

The sequence of a cry gene from Bacillus thuringiensis var. aizawai HD133 was determined. This cry gene encodes a protein of 1155 amino acids, the molecular weight of which is 130622 Da. When the nucleotide sequence of this cry gene was compared with the nucleotide sequence from B.t. var. aizawai IPL7 and var. berliner 1715, only five nucleotide changes were found. Therefore, this cry gene should be grouped into the cryIA(b) gene type. A 72 nucleotide sequence upstream of the open reading frame of the cry gene was enough to conduct the transcription of the cry gene in E. coli. Using a promoter probe vector system, it was demonstrated that any DNA fragment containing this 72 nt sequence exhibited promoter activity in vivo. It is likely that a putative promoter sequence may be present within this 72 nucleotides region for the expression of this cry gene in E. coli.