In 1996 AGERI obtained an Egyptian patent on a biological insecticide from an indigenous strain of the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt). This patent is the first of its kind to be obtained in Egypt for biotechnology and molecular biology related products. A patent application was subsequently filed in the United States.

Patent in Egypt  

Subject: Bt derived bioinsecticide against a wide range of insects

File #: 019797  -  Patent Office
Academy of Scientific Research & Technology

Filing Date: January 11, 1996

Patent in USA

Subject: Bt isolates with broad spectrum activity

File #: 5178-3

Filing Date: January 10, 1997

This local bacterium of B. thuringiensis subsp. aegyptiaca was isolated and purified from a dead insect larvae of the cotton pink bollworm (Pectinophora gossypiella).  It is rod-shaped, Gram-positive and spore-forming bacterium. It produces three different proteineous crystalline bodies during sporulation.  The crystal shapes are bipyramidal (specific to lepidopteran insects), irregular (specific to dipteran insects) and rhomboid (specific to coleopteran insects).   This isolate demonstrates strong insecticidal activities against representative of the three insect orders e.g. Spodoptera littoralis (Lepidoptera), Culex pipiens (Diptera) and Tribollium sp. (Coleoptera).

Scientists at AGERI also cloned DNA fragments from this local isolate which encode the three genes responsible for the production of the toxin proteins into pUC19 plasmid and E. coli as host.  The cloned genes reacted with specific DNA primers and gave specific polymerase chain reaction product profiles (PCR).  A partial sequence of one of the genes (lepidopteran-specific) was obtained.

CRY I A a 

CRY II A

CRY V