Melnikov, O., Department of Life Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Be'er-Sheva, Israel
Baranes, N., Department of Life Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Be'er-Sheva, Israel
Einav, M., Department of Life Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Be'er-Sheva, Israel
Ben-Dov, E., Department of Life Sciences, Achva Academic College, MP Shikmim 79800, Israel, National Institute for Biotechnology in the Negev, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Be'er-Sheva, Israel
Manasherob, R., Department of Life Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Be'er-Sheva, Israel
Itsko, M., Department of Life Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Be'er-Sheva, Israel
Zaritsky, A., Department of Life Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Be'er-Sheva, Israel

A new gene, cry11Bb2 from a field isolate of Bacillus thuringiensis, was cloned for expression in Escherichia coli. The encoded protein, with a deduced molecular mass of 89.5 kDa, exhibits 97 and 79% identities with the overlap regions of Cry11Bb1 from B. thuringiensis ssp. medellin and Cry11Ba1 from ssp. jegathesan, respectively. It is however longer than Cry11Bb1 by 42 amino acids in its carboxy-terminus, of which 32 comprise 2 tandem repeats additional to the 5 existing in the latter polypeptide. Possible roles for this recurrent motif among Cry toxins and their accessory proteins, and for their encoding genes are proposed. © 2011 S. Karger AG, Basel.