Characterization of CwlC, an autolysin, and its role in mother cell lysis of Bacillus thuringiensis subsp. israelensis

Bacillus thuringiensis subsp. israelensis (Bti) has been proven to efficiently control mosquitoes, of which many species are important vectors of human disease. The larvicidal action is attributed to the parasporal crystals formed in the sporulating cells and released upon cell autolysis. In this study, a sporulation-specific cwlC gene that encodes an N-acetylmuramoyl-_L -alanine amidase was characterized in Bti strain Bt-59. CwlC was the only cell wall hydrolase in Bti found to contain both MurNAc-LAA and Amidase02_C domains. A recombinant CwlC-His protein was able to digest the Bacillus cell wall. Deletion of the cwlC gene delayed Bti mother cell lysis without impacting vegetative growth or insecticidal efficacy. Transcriptional analyses indicated that cwlC was expressed at the late sporulation stage and was controlled by SigK. Two other cell wall hydrolase genes, cwlB and cwlE, with high expression levels at T₁₄ in Bt-59, were also identified. Like cwlC, cwlB expression was controlled by SigK; in contrast, cwlE was found not to be under the control of this sigma factor and unlike the other two, its gene was found to be plasmid encoded.

Novel Cell Wall Hydrolase CwlC from Bacillus thuringiensis Is Essential for Mother Cell Lysis

In this study, a sporulation-specific gene (tentatively named cwlC) involved in mother cell lysis in Bacillus thuringiensis was characterized. The encoded CwlC protein consists of an N-terminal N-acetylmuramoyl-l-alanine amidase (MurNAc-LAA) domain and a C-terminal amidase02 domain. The recombinant histidine-tagged CwlC proteins purified from Escherichia coli were able to directly bind to and digest the B. thuringiensis cell wall. The CwlC point mutations at the two conserved glutamic acid residues (Glu-24 and Glu-140) shown to be critical for the catalytic activity in homologous amidases resulted in a complete loss of cell wall lytic activity, suggesting that CwlC is an N-acetylmuramoyl-l-alanine amidase. Results of transcriptional analyses indicated that cwlC is transcribed as a monocistronic unit and that its expression is dependent on sporulation sigma factor K (σ^K). Deletion of cwlC completely blocked mother cell lysis during sporulation without impacting the sporulation frequency, Cry1Ac protein production, and insecticidal activity. Taken together, our data suggest that CwlC is an essential cell wall hydrolase for B. thuringiensis mother cell lysis during sporulation. Engineered B. thuringiensis strains targeting cwlC, which allows the crystal inclusion to remain encapsulated in the mother cell at the end of sporulation, may have the potential to become more effective biological control agents in agricultural applications since the crystal inclusion remains encapsulated in the mother cell at the end of sporulation.IMPORTANCE Mother cell lysis has been well studied in Bacillus subtilis, which involves three distinct yet functionally complementary cell wall hydrolases. In this study, a novel cell wall hydrolase, CwlC, was investigated and found to be essential for mother cell lysis in Bacillus thuringiensis CwlC of B. thuringiensis only shows 9 and 21% sequence identity with known B. subtilis mother cell hydrolases CwlB and CwlC, respectively, suggesting that mechanisms of mother cell lysis may differ between B. subtilis and B. thuringiensis The cwlC gene deletion completely blocked the release of spores and crystals from the mother cell without affecting insecticidal activity. This may provide a new effective strategy for crystal encapsulation against UV light inactivation.