The persistence and ecological impacts of a cyanobacterium genetically engineered to express mosquitocidal Bacillus thuringiensis toxins.

Simple item page
dc.citation.doi10.1186/s13071-016-1544-zen_ZA
dc.contributor.authorKetseoglou, I.
dc.contributor.authorBouwer, G.
dc.date.accessioned2016-09-28T15:07:29Z
dc.date.available2016-09-28T15:07:29Z
dc.date.issued2016-05-10
dc.description.abstractBackground: The cyanobacterium Anabaena PCC 7120#11 has been genetically engineered to act as a delivery vehicle for Bacillus thuringiensis subspecies israelensis mosquitocidal toxins. To address ecological concerns about releasing this genetically engineered microorganism into the environment for mosquito larva control, the persistence and ecological impacts of PCC 7120#11 was evaluated using multi-species, standardized aquatic microcosms. Methods: The microcosms were set up as described in ASTM E1366-02 (Standard Practice for Standardized Aquatic Microcosms: Fresh Water), with a few modifications. The treatment group microcosms were inoculated with PCC 7120#11 and key water quality parameters and non-target effects were compared between the treatment and control groups over a period of 35 days. Results: PCC 7120#11 decreased from a concentration of 4.50 × 106 cells/ml (at inoculation) to 1.32 × 103 cells/ml after 4 weeks and larvicidal activity against third instar larvae of Anopheles arabiensis was only evident for two weeks after treatment. Both treatment and the interaction of treatment and time had a significant effect on nitrate, phosphate and photosynthetic microorganism concentrations. Treatment with PCC 7120#11 caused a temporary spike in ammonia in the microcosms a week after treatment, but the concentrations were well below acute and chronic criteria values for ammonia in freshwater ecosystems. Cyprinotus vidua concentrations were not significantly different between PCC 7120#11 and control microcosms. In PCC 7120#11 microcosms, Daphnia pulex concentrations were significantly lower than control concentrations between days 18 and 25. By the end of the experiment, none of the measured variables were significantly different between the treatment groups. Conclusions: The standard aquatic microcosm experiments provided more data on the ecological impacts of PCC 7120#11 than single-organism assessments would have. On the basis of the relatively minor, short-term effects that PCC 7120#11 had on water quality parameters and non-target invertebrates, further evaluation of PCC 7120#11 for use in integrated vector management is warranted.en_ZA
dc.description.librarianSP2016en_ZA
dc.identifier.citationKetseoglou, I. and Bouwer, G. 2016. The persistence and ecological impacts of a cyanobacterium genetically engineered to express mosquitocidal Bacillus thuringiensis toxins. Parasites and Vectors 9:273.en_ZA
dc.identifier.issn1756-3305
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10539/21093
dc.journal.titleParasites and Vectorsen_ZA
dc.journal.volume9en_ZA
dc.language.isoenen_ZA
dc.publisherBioMed Central Ltd.en_ZA
dc.rights© 2016 Ketseoglou and Bouwer. Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.en_ZA
dc.subjectAnabaena PCC 7120en_ZA
dc.subjectAnopheles arabiensisen_ZA
dc.subjectBacillus thuringiensis israelensien_ZA
dc.subjectCry proteinsen_ZA
dc.subjectGenetically modified organismen_ZA
dc.subjectMicrocosmsen_ZA
dc.subjectNon-target organismsen_ZA
dc.titleThe persistence and ecological impacts of a cyanobacterium genetically engineered to express mosquitocidal Bacillus thuringiensis toxins.en_ZA
dc.typeArticleen_ZA
Files
Original bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Thumbnail Image
Name:
The persistence and ecological impacts of a cyanobacterium genetically engineered to express mosquitocidal Bacillus thuringiensis toxins.pdf
Size:
1.11 MB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format
Description:
Article
Download
License bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
No Thumbnail Available
Name:
license.txt
Size:
1.71 KB
Format:
Item-specific license agreed upon to submission
Description:
Download
Collections
Research Outputs (School of Molecular and Cell Biology)
Wits Research Outputs