Plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) belonging to Pseudomonas spp. are being exploited commercially for plant protection to induce systemic resistance against various pests and diseases. Mixtures of di!erent PGPR strains have resulted in increased e$cacy by inducing systemic resistance against several pathogens attacking the same crop. Seed-treatment with PGPR causes cell wall structural...

Increases in severity and frequency of drought periods, average global temperatures, and more erratic fluctuations in rainfall patterns due to climate change are predicted to have a dramatic impact on agricultural production systems. Insect pest populations in agricultural and horticultural systems are also expected to be impacted, both in terms of their spatial and temporal distributions and i...

Cyst nematodes are highly evolved sedentary plant endoparasites that use parasitism proteins injected through the stylet into host tissues to successfully parasitize plants. These secretory proteins likely are essential for parasitism as they are involved in a variety of parasitic events leading to the establishment of specialized feeding cells required by the nematode to obtain nourishment. Wi...

the search for alternative ways of controlling sericultural pests has led to the investigation of plant sources for naturally occurring compounds which may have insect growth regulatory, feeding deterrency, repellency and confusantcy characteristics. more than 2000 species of the families asteraceae, fabaceae and euphorbiaceae are known that possess some insecticidal activity. plants with insec...

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...

Crops producing insecticidal toxins from the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) are widely planted and enable management of key insect pests while reducing the use of conventional insecticides. However, the evolution of Bt resistance could diminish these benefits. Fitness costs of Bt resistance occur in the absence of Bt toxin when individuals with resistance alleles show a reduction in fitn...

rearing methods for bracon hebetor (say) (hym., braconidae) were investigated in the series of laboratory experiments designed to enhance the yield of the mass rearing of this parasitoid for biological control of lepidopteran field and stored product pests. in these experiments, the effects of parasitoid and host densities on fertility and sex ratio of b. hebetor were assessed. in parasitoid de...

Transgenic crops producing Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) toxins kill some key insect pests and can reduce reliance on insecticide sprays. Sustainable use of such crops requires methods for delaying evolution of resistance by pests. To thwart pest resistance, some transgenic crops produce 2 different Bt toxins targeting the same pest. This "pyramid" strategy is expected to work best when selection...

aphids are among important agricultural pests. the pest's evolutionary tendency towards a loss of taxonomically useful characteristics, as well as morphological plasticity due to host type and as a result of environmental factors, make a morphological identification of aphids difficult, whereas exact identification is indispensable for managment of these pests. thus, modern identification ...