Linocin M18 protein from the insect pathogenic bacterium Brevibacillus laterosporus isolates

Brevibacillus laterosporus (Bl) is a Gram-positive and spore-forming bacterium. Insect pathogenic strains have been characterised in New Zealand, and two isolates, Bl 1821L and Bl 1951, are under development for use in biopesticides. However, growth in culture is sometimes disrupted, affecting mass production. Based on previous work, it was hypothesised that Tectiviridae phages might be implicated. While investigating the cause of the disrupted growth, electron micrographs of crude lysates showed structural components of putative phages including capsid and tail-like structures. Sucrose density gradient purification yielded a putative self-killing protein of 30 kDa. N-terminal sequencing of the 30 kDa protein identified matches to a predicted 25 kDa hypothetical and a 31.4 kDa putative encapsulating protein homologs, with the genes encoding each protein adjacent in the genomes. BLASTp analysis of the homologs of 31.4 kDa amino acid sequences shared 98.6