Crystal proteins from the Gram-positive soil bacterium,
Wei et al. expressed seven different crystal toxin proteins from two largely unstudied Bt protein subfamilies and measured their toxicity on diverse free-living nematode species. They observed that four of these crystal proteins are active against multiple nematode species, including a rat intestinal nematode. Toxicity in nematodes correlated with damage to the intestine — consistent with the mechanism of crystal toxin action in insects. In addition, they...