Although genetically modified (GM) plants expressing toxins from Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) protect agricultural crops against lepidopteran and coleopteran pests, field-evolved resistance to Bt toxins has been reported for populations of several lepidopteran species. Moreover, some important agricultural pests, like phloem-feeding insects, are not susceptible to Bt crops. Complementary pest co...

Adaptive and non-adaptive evolutionary processes are likely to play important roles in biological invasions but their relative importance has hardly ever been quantified. Moreover, although genetic differences between populations in their native versus invasive ranges may simply reflect different positions along a genetic latitudinal cline, this has rarely been controlled for. To study non-adap...

in this study, a landrace melon zarde jalali as the scion and commercial varieties of cucurbita rootstocks cv., shintozwa and ferro-rz was used as the rootstock. grafted plants upon commercial varieties of cucurbita with own-rooted and ungrafted at three irrigation levels of 60, 80 and 100% (respectively 4984.32, 6124.82 and 7239.41 m3ha-1) based on total available water depletion with drip irr...

two-spotted spider mite, tetranychus urticae koch (acari: tetranychidae), is one of the most injurious pests of fruits, vegetables and ornamental plants worldwide, both outdoor and indoors. currently the main method of control of this pest is through application of pesticides which is mostly accompanied by the resistance of the pest against pesticide(s). the resurgence of resistant mite populat...

Transferring plants between populations of rare species has often been proposed to increase population size and replenish genetic variation. While this approach has many advantages, it may also disrupt local adaptation. However, the scale over which plants adapt to local conditions is hard to predict. To detect local adaptation, we conducted reciprocal transplant experiments in the field with s...

BACKGROUND The major challenge of cultivating genetically modified (GM) rice (Oryza sativa) at the commercial scale is to prevent the spread of transgenes from GM cultivated rice to its coexisting weedy rice (O. sativa f. spontanea). The strategic development of GM rice with a built-in control mechanism can mitigate transgene spread in weedy rice populations. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS An...