Bacillus thuringiensis: A Biological Control Agent

B. thuringiensis is a soil-dwelling bacterium which is used as a biological control agent. It is gram-positive, indicating the presence of a thick peptidoglycan (murein) cell wall, and as a member of the genus Bacillus, B. thuringiensis is a rod-shaped bacteria. As a biological agent, B. thuringiensis is used to kill a number of specific insect pests, which can harm food crops Bacillus thuringiensis (1) etc. The World Health Organisation states that B. thuringiensis is particularly effective in killing species of insect larvae belonging to the insect orders Coleoptera [beetles], Diptera [flies] and Lepidoptera [moths and butterflies]. (2) . The mechanism by which B. thuringiensis kills specific insect larvae is as follows: When the bacteria produces spores, it also produces parasporal bodies (that is to say, solid protein crystals, which are formed beside the dormant spores). The parasporal body contains a protoxin a chemical compound which only becomes toxic when it is altered in some way. When the sporulated B. thuringiensis and the protein crystal are consumed by a susceptible insect, the protease enzymes in the digestive tract of said insect lyse the protoxin, converting it into a biologically-active toxin. The epithelial cells of the insects gut are damaged by the active toxin. This allows leakage of the gut contents into the blood, and along with spore germination and several other factors, causes septicaemia (which kills the insect by initiating multiple organ failure).

(3)

Given the fact that insects are responsible for damaging many crops, biological control agents such as B. thuringiensis are highly effective because they are highly-specific

to common pests (i.e. as mentioned earlier B. thuringiensis is an effective agent for destroying insect pests of the genera Coleoptera, Diptera and Lepidoptera). As well as being incredibly effective re: killing pest species, B. thuringiensis is successful as a biological pest control agent because it has a very minimal environmental impact: it has little or no effect on wildlife, including pollinators, and other beneficial insect species. For this reason, B. thuringiensis is used widely in organic farming. In a study published in the Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry, a group of eighteen volunteers ingested a sample of B. thuringiensis every day for five days. In addition, five of these volunteers also inhaled a sample for five days. Following scientific examination of the subjects, scientists found that they suffered no adverse effects as a result of their extended and concentrated intake of B. thuringiensis. In another study of workers who handled crops which had been treated with B. thuringiensis, said workers did not display any signs of work-related illness, resulting from exposure to the microbial agent. Finally, a group of eight men, following seven months of exposure to the B. thuringiensis bacterium, as a result of pesticide manufacture, displayed no adverse health effects, when examined by a team of scientists.B. thuringiensis is, therefore, successful as a biological control agent because it can be used on food crops, without toxicity to the humans who consume them. Much like other biological pest control agents, when B. thuringiensis is introduced into an environment containing a species which it attacks (for the purpose of this example, we will assume that the pest in question is a species of the genus Coleoptera, a beetle), the number of coleopteran pests in this environment will be decreased, on account of the action of the protoxin in the parasporal , as described earlier. However, this decrease in the number of pests does not occur immediately, following the introduction of the biological control agent, B. thuringiensis, as is demonstrated by the below graph. The reason for this is that following the introduction of B. thuringiensis into said environment, the size of the agent (in this case, B. thuringiensis) population must increase to a sufficient level, before the agent is able to begin to decrease the number of (coleopteran) pests.

In general, B. thuringiensis is applied to crops, following dilution with water, using a spray gun, or some other similar apparatus. B. thuringiensis is sold under a number of trade names, for example: Thuricide DiPel Vectobac Cutlass Foray Able Biobit

All of these products are applied in a liquid form, utilising a spray gun/applicator, to ensure that the bacterium is spread effectively over a large area of crops.