Insect damage on fossil leaves from the Central Rocky Mountains, United States, documents the response of herbivores to changing regional climates and vegetation during the late Paleocene (humid, warm temperate to subtropical, predominantly deciduous), early Eocene (humid subtropical, mixed deciduous and evergreen), and middle Eocene (seasonally dry, subtropical, mixed deciduous and thick-leave...

Insect resistance to Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) crystal protein is a major threat to the long-term use of transgenic Bt crops. Gene stacking is a readily deployable strategy to delay the development of insect resistance while it may also broaden insecticidal spectrum. Here, we report the creation of transgenic rice expressing discrete Cry1Ab and Cry2Ab simultaneously from a single expression c...

Plants and herbivores have co-evolved in their natural habitats for about 350 million years, but since the domestication of crops, plant resistance against insects has taken a different turn. With the onset of monoculture-driven modern agriculture, selective pressure on insects to overcome resistances has dramatically increased. Therefore plant breeders have resorted to high-tech tools to conti...

The growing demand for reducing chemical inputs in agriculture and increased resistance to insecticides have provided great impetus to the development of alternative forms of insect-pest control. Myco-biocontrol offers an attractive alternative to the use of chemical pesticides. Myco-biocontrol agents are naturally occurring organisms which are perceived as less damaging to the environment. The...

Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) crystal protein genes encode insecticidal delta-endotoxins that are widely used for the development of insect-resistant crops. In this article, we describe an alternative transgenic strategy that has the potential to generate broader and more sustainable levels of resistance against insect pests. Our strategy involves engineering plants with a fusion protein combinin...

Genetically engineered crops represent one of the most controversial and rapidly adopted technologies in the history of agriculture. To improve pest control, scientists have engineered cotton, corn, and soybeans to make insecticidal proteins from the common bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) [1]. These Bt toxins kill some devastating pests, but unlike broad-spectrum insecticides, they do lit...

The presence of lignin within biomass impedes the production of liquid fuels. Plants with altered lignin content and composition are more amenable to lignocellulosic conversion to ethanol and other biofuels but may be more susceptible to insect damage where lignin is an important resistance factor. However, reduced lignin lines of switchgrasses still retained insect resistance in prior studies....

transgenic tomato plants of south indian cultivar arka vikas were developed using agrobacterium strain eha 105, harbouring bt cry2a gene with a construct containing 35s camv promoter, ocs terminator and nptii selectable marker, through agrobacterium-mediated transformation. this study was conducted to improve the regeneration and transformation protocol for south indian cultivar arka vikas. hyp...

characteristics (Lambert and Tyler, 1999). The lack of development of superior SIR cultivars may be due to There has been limited success over the past 30 yr in the developthe quantitative nature of resistance and to the retention ment of superior soybean cultivars [Glycine max (L.) Merr] with of undesirable PI donor alleles affecting any number insect resistance. Success may be hampered by the...

Insect pests are among the most important constraints limiting sweetpotato (Ipomoea batatas) production in Africa. However, there is inadequate information about farmers' knowledge, perceptions and practices in the management of key insect pests. This has hindered development of effective pest management approaches for smallholder farmers. A standard questionnaire was used to interview individu...