Cry11Aa and Cyt1Aa are two pesticidal toxins produced by Bacillus thuringiensis subsp. israelensis. To better understand the nature of their oligomers in toxic actions and synergistic effects, we used atomic force microscopy to probe the surfaces of their native crystals, and employed the L-weight filter to enhance structural features.
Images of these crystals can be found in several publications in collaboration with Jacques-Philippe Colletier’s SNAX team at IBS. AFM images were obtained by Jean-Marie Teulon and image processing was carried out by Shu-wen W. Chen.
Tetreau G, Banneville A-S, Andreeva EA, Brewster AS, Hunter MS, Sierra RG, Teulon J-M, Young ID, Burke N, Gruenewald T, Beaudouin J, Snigireva I, Fernandez-Luna MT, Burt A, Park H-W, Signor L, Bafna JA, Sadir R, Fenel D, Boeri-Erba E, Bacia M, Zala N, Laporte F, Després L, Weik M, Boutet S, Rosenthal M, Coquelle N, Burghammer M, Cascio D, Sawaya MR, Winterhalter M, Gratton E, Gutsche I, Federici B, Pellequer J-L, Sauter NK and Colletier J-P (2020) Serial femtosecond crystallography drives elucidation of mosquitocidal Cyt1Aa bioactivation cascade, from in vivo crystallization to cell lysis. Nat. Comm. 11 : 1153.
Tetreau G, Sawaya MR, De Zitter E, Andreeva EA, Banneville A-S, Schibrosky N, Coquelle N, Brewster AS, Schiro G, Grünbein M-L, Kovacs GN, Hunter MS, Kloos M, Sierra RG, Qiao P, Bideshi D, Young ID, Zala N, Engilberge S, Gorel A, Signor L, Teulon J-M, Bielicki J, Bean R, Letrun R, Batyuk A, Snigireva I, Fenel D, Schubert R, Laporte F, Després L, Bacia M, Girard E, Roux-Gossart A, Chapelle C, Maury O, Ling WL, Boutet S, Mancuso A, Barends TRM, Pellequer JL, Park H-W, Laganowsky AD, Rodriguez J, Burghammer M, Shoeman RL, Doak RB, Weik M, Sauter NK, Federici B, Cascio D, Schlichting I and Colletier J-P (2022) De novo determination of mosquitocidal Cry11Aa and Cry11Ba structures by serial femtosecond crystallography on nanocrystals. Nat. Comm. 13 : 4376.
Chen SWW, Teulon JM and Pellequer JL (2023) Cry11Aa and Cyt1Aa exhibit different structural orders in crystal topography. J. Mol. Recogn. 36 : e3047.
