CLONING, PROTEIN EXPRESSION AND EVALUATION

OF CRY GENE

Initially a large number of chemical insecticides had been developed for controlling insects which
shows many harmful effects to the quality of soil, environment as well as to the health of human.
The disadvantages of chemical insecticides leads to the invention of Bacillus thuringenesis toxin that
can be used as a insecticide. It has been found that the use of Bacillus thuringenesis toxin has no
hazardous effect on the human beings as well as on the environment. The toxin is a type of protein
which is formed during sporulation as a crystal. The crystal is composed of cry proteins, encoded by
cry genes. These toxins are found to be active against lepidopteran species, dipteran and
coleopteran species. The genes of Bacillus thuringenesis coding paraporal crystals are also a key
source for transgenic expression which provide pest resistance in plants. These cry proteins can be
used for plants with no or less hazardous effects on the environment as well as human health. The
main objective of the paper is to clone the gene in bacterial expression vector and used for
expression of recombinant protein in E. coli. It was tested for its insecticidal activity against
Helicoverpa armigera through bioassay tests. It was found that it has effect on the H. armigera and it
can be used for the field work.