BACKGROUND Bt-cry1Ac gene has been reputedly effective against Helicoverpa armigera a notorious lepidopteran pest. Reports on the expression of full-length and truncated cry1Ac genes in plants for effective resistance against Helicoverpa sp. have been documented however, their performance is still ambiguous. Moreover, the question remains to be addressed that truncation of 3' end of the native ...

The number of transgenic cotton cultivars available for commercial production has increased greatly in recent years. Cotton producers now have multiple choices when choosing transgenic cotton cultivars. The choice of cultivar now dictates the insect and weed control programs that will or can be used. It is estimated that, in 2002, 55% of Arkansas’ cotton acreage was planted to a stacked-gene cu...

Cotton produces insecticidal terpenoids that are induced by tissue-feeding herbivores. Damage by Heliothis virescens caterpillars increases the terpenoid content, which reduces the abundance of aphids. This effect is not evident in Bt-transgenic cotton, which is resistant to H. virescens. We determined whether induction of terpenoids by caterpillars influences the host quality of Aphis gossypii...

Transgenic cotton that has been engineered to produce insecticidal toxins from Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) and so to resist the pest cotton bollworm (Helicoverpa armigera) has been widely planted in Asia. Analysis of the population dynamics of H. armigera from 1992 to 2007 in China indicated that a marked decrease in regional outbreaks of this pest in multiple crops was associated with the plan...

A significant portion of the world’s cultivated land is affected by salinity that reduces crop productivity in these areas. Breeding for salt tolerance is one of the important strategies to overcome this problem. Recently, genetic engineering is becoming a promising approach to improving salt tolerance. In order to improve the yield performance of canola in saline soils, we transformed canola w...

Cotton plants induce high levels of gossypol in response to herbivore damage. However, little is known about the mechanisms by which insect herbivory modulates gossypol biosynthesis in cotton plants. Here, we report the mechanism by which herbivore damage or insect-originated elicitors modulate the biosynthesis of gossypol and jasmonic acid (JA) in plants. Spodoptera exigua larval-damaged (HD) ...

Insecticide susceptibility in tobacco budworm, Heliothis virescens (F.) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae), was determined for 8 yr (1991-2001) with larvae sampled from cotton in southern Tamaulipas, Mexico. Before 1996, when Bollgard cotton expressing the Cry1A(c) delta-endotoxin was introduced into the region, two important patterns were documented. The first was economically significant increases in r...

To investigate the impact of overexpression of AtNRT2.1 transgene from Arabidopsis on nitrate uptake rate and to understand the regulation of endogenous HATS by nitrate and glutamine amino acid (Gln) in tobacco plants, wild-type and transgenic (F line) plants grown on soil for 4 weeks were transferred to hydroponic culture in a controlled-environment with a 16/8h L:D photoperiod at 24? C/20...

Adult parasitoids of pest insects rely on floral resources for survival and reproduction, but can be food-deprived in intensively managed agricultural systems lacking these resources. Stink bugs are serious pests for crops in southwest Georgia. Provisioning nectar-producing plants for parasitoids of stink bugs potentially can enhance biocontrol of these pests. Knowledge of spatial and temporal ...

Cotton leaf curl disease (CLCuD) is the major biotic constraint to cotton production on the Indian subcontinent, and is caused by monopartite begomoviruses accompanied by a specific DNA satellite, Cotton leaf curl Multan betasatellite (CLCuMB). Since the breakdown of resistance against CLCuD in 2001/2002, only one virus, the "Burewala" strain of Cotton leaf curl Kokhran virus (CLCuKoV-Bur), and...