Cryo-EM identifies F-ENA of Bacillus thuringiensis as a widespread family of endospore appendages across Firmicutes
摘要
For over 100 years, Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) has been used as an agricultural biopesticide to control pests caused by insect species in the orders of Lepidoptera, Diptera, and Coleoptera. Under nutrient starvation, Bt cells differentiate into spores and associated toxin crystals that can adopt biofilm-like aggregates. We reveal that such Bt spore/toxin biofilms are embedded in a fibrous extrasporal matrix, and using cryoID, we resolved the structure and molecular identity of an uncharacterized type of pili, referred to here as