I need to differentiate between strains of Bacillus thuringiensis i.e., Bt kurstaki and Bt aizawai either through morphological or biochemical characterization. What is the possible quick method?
Right off the bat the crystals will look different. Kurstaki (3a3b3c) has the classic bipyramidal crystal and aizawai (7) is more cuboidal. However there are variants within each serotype. I would use the word serotype since these designations are based on flagellar antigens rather than the term strain. Look at Glare and O'Callaghan eds. Bacillu thuringiensis: Biology, Ecology and Safety, Wiley & Sons, Chichester
You cannot use the target pest to differenciate between serotypes. Nowadays , the bes method to identify the serotype of a Bt serotype is by sequencing the flagellin gene.
Dear Humera,
At first one should be clear with the Bacillus thuringiensis nomenclature which makes one familiar with the genetic and molecular biologic differences. This may be also an answer for your question.
Bacillus thuringiensis Toxin Nomenclature:
http://www.btnomenclature.info/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC98935/
Here you can find a PCR approach:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12586389
The last solution may be the biotesting to assess their efficiency according to their specificity.
A publication may help to complement the Dr. Ibarra's response: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16820457
One can go with the sequencing flagellin gene, though the 16srRNA analysis just gives you the Genus identification.
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