In the coming years, the frequency of unauthorised genetically modified organisms (GMOs) being present in the European food and feed chain will increase significantly. Therefore, we have developed a strategy to identify unauthorised GMOs containing a pCAMBIA family vector, frequently present in transgenic plants. This integrated approach is performed in two successive steps on Bt rice grains. F...

Genetic modification (GM) of food crops is a very hot topic in today’s society. When researchers discovered that certain bacteria had the ability to transfer their own DNA into plant genomes, the applications seemed endless. By taking advantage of this transfer DNA (T-DNA) mechanism, scientists can selectively transfer specific genes into the target plant to provide agronomic or health benefits...

Entomologists have often used computational modeling to study the dynamics of insects in agricultural landscapes. Recently, important issues such as movement adults and immatures associated with insect resistance GMO (genetically modified organism) crops been addressed using models. We developed an individual-based model cellular automata approach (CA) investigate how intercropping system compo...

OBJECTIVE To compare the ileal digestibility of protein and amino acids in parental rice and rice genetically modified with sck gene. METHODS Six experimental swines were surgically fixed with a simple T-cannula at the terminal ileum and fed with parental rice and rice genetically modified with sck gene alternately. The ileum digesta were collected and analyzed for determination of apparent a...

Genetically modified (GM) cotton plants that effectively control cotton boll weevil (CBW), which is the most destructive cotton insect pest in South America, are reported here for the first time. This work presents the successful development of a new GM cotton with high resistance to CBW conferred by Cry10Aa toxin, a protein encoded by entomopathogenic Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) gene. The plan...

© 2011. The Authors. Licensee: AOSIS OpenJournals. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License. The South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) recently released the outcome of the South Africa–Norway bio-safety cooperation project ‘Monitoring the environmental impacts of GM maize in South Africa’. This project studied possible impacts of commercial geneticall...

This year, 30 million acres of the corn, cotton, and potatoes planted in the United States will have been genetically engineered to produce an endotoxin normally found in the microbe Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt), a self-contained pesticide that will be toxic only to target insects. Transgenic pest-resistant crops are a cost-effective alternative to chemical pesticides, and may offer a way to hel...

Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) and its insecticidal toxins are widely exploited in microbial biopesticides and genetically modified crops. Its population biology is, however, poorly understood. Important issues for the safe, sustainable exploitation of Bt include understanding how selection maintains expression of insecticidal toxins in nature, whether entomopathogenic Bt is ecologically distinct ...

Bt cotton are plants that have been genetically modified to express the insecticidal proteins Cry 1 Ac from subspecies of the bacterium, Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis (Bt), to control bollworm pest that feed on cotton. There is a persistent environmental concern that transgenic Bt-crops carry genes that have indirect undesirable effect to natural and agro– ecosystem function. We investigat...

Chilo suppressalis and Sesamia inferens are two important lepidopteran rice pests that occur concurrently during outbreaks in paddy fields in the main rice-growing areas of China. Previous and current field tests demonstrate that the transgenic rice line Huahui 1 (HH1) producing a Cry1Ab-Cry1Ac hybrid toxin from the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis reduces egg and larval densities of C. suppres...