Jute (Corchorus sp.) is naturally occurring, biodegradable, lignocellulosic-long, silky, golden shiny fiber producing plant that has great demands globally. Paper and textile industries are interested in jute because of the easy availability, non-toxicity and high yield of cellulosic biomass produced per acre in cultivation. Jute is the major and most industrially used bast fiber-producing crop...

Insect-active Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) proteins are expressed by several transgenic crop plants to control certain pests, but nontarget organisms such as ladybirds also can be exposed to these proteins in the field. We developed an improved ecotoxicity testing protocol and conducted feeding trials in a laboratory setting to test for possible adverse effects of different concentrations of mic...

Bacillus thuringiensis insecticidal crystal proteins (ICPs) are thought to induce pore formation in midgut cell membranes of susceptible insects. Cry1Ca, which is significantly active in Spodoptera littoralis, made brush border membrane vesicles permeable to KCl (osmotic swelling was monitored by the light scattering technique); the marginally active ICPs Cry1Aa, Cry1Ab, and Cry1Ac did not.

We assessed the effect of short-term feeding of genetically modified (GM: Bt MON810) maize on immune responses and growth in weanling pigs and determined the fate of the transgenic DNA and protein in-vivo. Pigs were fed a diet containing 38.9% GM or non-GM isogenic parent line maize for 31 days. We observed that IL-12 and IFNγ production from mitogenic stimulated peripheral blood mononuclear ce...

vii CHAPTER 1. GENERAL INTRODUCTION 1 Thesis organization 1 Literature review 1 Rationale 5 Objectives 5 References 6 CHAPTER 2. NOSEMA PYRAUSTA AND CRY1AB-INCORPORATED DIET LED TO DECREASED SURVIVAL AND DEVELOPMENTAL DELAYS IN EUROPEAN CORN BORER 9 Abstract 9 Introduction 10 Materials and Methods 12 Results 15 Discussion 17 Figure Captions 21 Acknowledgements 28 References 28 CHAPTER 3. PROCLI...

The cry gene content of Bacillus thuringiensis subsp. aizawai HD-133 was analyzed by a combination of high-pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC) and exclusive PCR. A total of six cry genes were detected in genomic DNA purified from HD-133, four from the cry1 family (cry1Aa, cry1Ab, cry1C, and cry1D) as well as a gene each from the cry2 (cry2B) and the cry1I families. To directly determine which...

With the deployment of transgenic crops expressing δ -endotoxins from Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) for pest management, there is a need to generate information on the interaction of crop pests with their natural enemies that are important for regulation of pest populations. Therefore, we studied the effects of the Bt δ -endotoxins Cry1Ab and Cry1Ac on the survival and development of the parasito...