Maria Belousova is fighting insects with bacteria

Bacillus thuringiensis serotype israelensis (Bti) is a group of bacteria used as biological control agents for larvae stages of certain dipterans. Bti produces toxins which are effective in killing various species of mosquitoes, fungus gnats, and blackflies, while having almost no effect on other organisms. Maria is working on a collection of bacterial isolates, preliminarily identified as belonging to the Bacillus cereus group and possibly including insecticidal strains of Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis.

– I work on further characterization of Bacillus cereus group isolates from the River Dalälven. The bacterial isolates were collected and partly characterized by a previous postdoc in CBC group, Salome Schneider. I am testing them with our new group-specific PCR primers. I also provide tests of the insecticidal activity of the isolates, says Maria.

Maria has recently received confirmation that isolates with cry4 genes are also positive in PCR with the Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis primers. And she expects to receive data on the insecticidal activity of the isolates using a bioassay test with larvae of the fly Hermetia illucens.

Maria work with Ingvar Sundh (Department of Microbiology, soon to be Department of Molecular Sciences, SLU). They also consult with Niels B. Hendriksen  (Department of Environmental Science, Aarhus University, Roskilde, Denmark) and Salome Schneider (previously the Department of Microbiology, SLU, now at the Biodiversity and Conservation Biology, Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL, Birmensdorf).

So, what did Maria do before she started this project?

– I evaluated biological safety of biological products based on Bacillus thuringiensis for predators. I am interested in the possibility of combined use of biologicals and predatory entomophagic insects for sustainable crop protection, says Maria.