Screening of Brazilian Bacillus sphaericus strains for high toxicity against Culex quinquefasciatus and Aedes aegypti

: In this work, 246 Bacillus sphaericus strains were evaluated against Aedes aegypti and Culex quinquefasciatus larvae to select the most effective ones to be used as the basis of a national product. All strains were isolated from different regions of Brazil and they are stored in a Bacillus spp. collection at Embrapa Genetic Resources and Biotechnology. The selected strains were characterized by biochemical and molecular methods. Based on selective bioassays, 87 strains were identified as toxic to one or both target species. All of these strains contain genes that encode the 42, 51 kDa proteins that constitute the binary toxin and the 100 kDa Mtx1 toxin. All toxic strains presented a very high LC50 against A. aegypti, so, a product based on any of these B. sphaericus strains would not be recommended for use in programmes to control A. aegypti. S201 had highest activity against C. quinquefasciatus, presenting the lowest LC50 and LC90 in bioassays.