Transgenic insect-resistant cotton (Bt cotton) has been extensively planted in China, but its effects on non-targeted insect species such as the economically important honey bee (Apis mellifera) and silkworm (Bombyx mori) currently are unknown. In this study, pollen from two Bt cotton cultivars, one expressing Cry1Ac/EPSPS and the other expressing Cry1Ac/Cry2Ab, were used to evaluate the effect...

The cotton bollworm Helicoverpa armigera (Hübner) is one of the most damaging cotton pests worldwide. In China, control of this pest has been dependent on transgenic cotton producing a single Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) protein Cry1Ac since 1997. A small, but significant, increase in H. armigera resistance to Cry1Ac was detected in field populations from Northern China. Since Vip3Aa has a diffe...

Transgenic Bt-cotton expresses insecticidal Cry proteins via Cry genes, introduced from the soil bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt). Data on levels of Cry proteins expressed in transgenic Bt-crops is important for assessing levels of environmental exposure. During investigations into the rhizosphere impacts of Cry proteins from GM cotton we found that Cry1Ac expression throughout the season ...

Regional suppression of pests by transgenic crops producing insecticidal proteins from Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) has been reported in several cropping systems, but little is known about the functional relationship between the ultimate pest population density and the pervasiveness of Bt crops. Here we address this issue by analyzing 16 years of field data on pink bollworm (Pectinophora gossypi...

Huge yield losses and deterioration of quality of cultivated plants occur due to continuous exposure of plants to pathogens and insect pests. The excessive use of chemical pesticides and fertilizers in modern agriculture result in a deterioration of soil fertility and through intracellular accumulation pesticide-resistant mutants of insects and plant pathogens have emerged worldwide. A number o...

In plants, CuZn superoxide dismutase (CuZnSOD, EC l.15.1.1), ascorbate peroxidase (APX, EC 1.11.1.11), and catalase (CAT, EC l.11.1.6) are important scavengers of reactive oxygen species (ROS) to protect the cell from damage. In the present study, we isolated three homologous genes (GhSOD1, GhAPX1, and GhCAT1) from Gossypium hirsutum. Overexpressing cassettes containing chimeric GhSOD1, GhAPX1,...

portrayed by some environmental groups as an enemy of our ecosystem. I am here today, as a representative of the agri-business industry, to address concerns of agricultural biotechnology and its impact on the environment, particularly the concerns surrounding the environmental impact of gene escape from transgenic plants to wild plants and the development of resistance by pests to genetically a...

In this study we produced transgenic tobacco plants by overexpressing a serine proteinase inhibitor gene, SaPIN2a, from the American black nightshade Solanum americanum under the control of the CaMV 35S promoter using Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated transformation. SaPIN2a was properly transcribed and translated as indicated by Northern blot and Western blot analyses. Functional integrity of...