Abstract

The toxic lineage (TL) of Lysinibacillus sphaericus has been extensively studied because of its potential biotechnological applications in biocontrol of mosquitoes and bioremediation of toxic metals. We previously proposed that L. sphaericus TL should be considered as a novel species based on a comparative genomic analysis. In the current work, we constructed the first manually curated metabolic reconstruction for this species on the basis of the available genomes. We elucidated the central metabolism of the proposed species and, beyond confirming the reported experimental evidence with genomic a support, we found insights to propose novel applications and traits to be considered in further studies. The strains belonging to this lineage exhibit a broad repertory of genes encoding insecticidal factors, some of them remain uncharacterized. These strains exhibit other unexploited biotechnological important traits, such as lactonases (quorum quenching), toxic metal resistance, and potential for aromatic compound degradation. In summary, this study provides a guideline for further research aimed to implement this organism in biocontrol and bioremediation. Similarly, we highlighted the unanswered questions to be responded in order to gain a deeper understanding of the L. sphaericus TL biology.

Highlights

  • Since the first description of a highly entomopathogenic strain of the spore-forming bacterium Lysinibacillus sphaericus [1], there have been an increasing interest on the potential uses of this bacterium in biocontrol

  • L. sphaericus toxic lineage (TL) is the only set of strains within this group with a clear taxonomic circumscription as species [6]

  • We present a metabolic reconstruction of L. sphaericus TL along with analysis about those traits that could be used in environmental and biotechnological applications

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Summary

Introduction

Since the first description of a highly entomopathogenic strain of the spore-forming bacterium Lysinibacillus sphaericus (as Bacillus sphaericus in 1978) [1], there have been an increasing interest on the potential uses of this bacterium in biocontrol. L. sphaericus has been studied for its resistance to toxic metals [3,4] and for its capability to produce biosurfactants [5]. The toxicity of L. sphaericus is mainly related to the binary toxin and the mosquitocidal toxins. The binary toxin is encoded by the binA and binB genes and produced as a paracrystalline structure attached to the spore. The mosquitocidal toxins (Mtx , and 3) are synthesized by the vegetative cell [2]. These toxins are not produced by all L. sphaericus strains and are restricted to a monophyletic group denominated toxic lineage (TL)

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