PROCESS FOR ALTERING THE HOST RANGE OF BACILLUS THURINGIENSIS TOXINS, AND NOVEL TOXINS PRODUCED THEREBY

摘要

The invention concerns an in vitro process for altering the insect host range (spectrum) of pesticidal toxins. The process comprises recombining in vitro the variable region(s) (non-homologous) of two or more genes encoding a pesticidal toxin. Specifically exemplified is the recombining of the variable regions of two genes obtained from well-known strains of Bacillus thuringiensis var. kurstaki. The resulting products are chimeric toxins which are shown to have an expanded and/or amplified insect host range as compared to the parent toxins.