Pre_GI: SWBIT SVG BLASTN

Query: NC_017208:64500 Bacillus thuringiensis serovar chinensis CT-43 chromosome, complete

Lineage: Bacillus thuringiensis; Bacillus; Bacillaceae; Bacillales; Firmicutes; Bacteria

General Information: This organism, also known as BT, is famous for the production of an insecticidal toxin. The bacterium was initially discovered as a pathogen of various insects and was first used as an insecticidal agent in the early part of this century. This organism, like many other Bacilli, is found in the soil, where it leads a saprophytic existence, but becomes an opportunistic pathogen of insects when ingested. The specific activity of the toxin towards insects and its lack of toxicity to animals has made this organism a useful biocontrol agent. The delta-endotoxin, which is produced during the sporulation part of the life cycle, causes midgut paralysis and disruption of feeding by the infected insect host. The delta-endotoxin, which is produced during the sporulation part of the life cycle, causes midgut paralysis and disruption of feeding by the infected insect host. The delta-endotoxin, which is produced during the sporulation part of the life cycle, causes midgut paralysis and disruption of feeding by the infected insect host. The presence of a parasporal crystal, which is outside the exosporium of the endospore, is indicative of production of the toxin, and serves as a marker for this species.Activation of the toxin typically requires a high pH environment such as the alkaline environments in insect midguts followed by proteolysis.

Subject: NC_008525:1202852 Pediococcus pentosaceus ATCC 25745, complete genome

Lineage: Pediococcus pentosaceus; Pediococcus; Lactobacillaceae; Lactobacillales; Firmicutes; Bacteria

General Information: Use in fermentation of food products. A distinctive characteristic of pediococci is their ability to form tetrads via cell division in two perpendicular directions in a single plane. Like other lactic acid bacteria, species of Pediococcus are acid tolerant, cannot synthesize porphyrins, and possess a strictly fermentative (homofermentative) facultatively anaerobic metabolism with lactic acid as the major metabolic end product. They also occur in such food products as cured meat, raw sausages, and marinated fish, and are are used for biotechnological processing and preservation of foods. This bacterium can be isolated from a variety of plant materials and bacterial-ripened cheeses. This organism is used as an acid producing starter culture in the fermentation of some sausages, cucumbers, green beans, soy milk, and silage. Some strains have been reported to contain several (3-5) resident plasmids that render the bacterium capable of fermenting some sugars (raffinose, melibiose, and sucrose), as well as producing bacteriocins.