A novel recombinant bacmid, bEasyBm, that enables the easy and fast generation of pure recombinant baculovirus without any purification step was constructed. In bEasyBm, attR recombination sites were introduced to facilitate the generation of a recombinant viral genome by in vitro transposition. Moreover, the extracellular RNase gene from Bacillus amyloliquefaciens, barnase, was expressed under...

Laboratory selection for fenvalerate resistance was conducted in two colonies of the parasitoid, Cotesia plutellae, reared on two colonies of its host, Plutella xylostella, which differed in resistance to the insecticide. In the selection regime, the insecticide was applied to the host larvae that harboured the parasitoid larvae. Compared with the unselected parasitoid colony, the parasitoid co...

The widespread fungal pathogen Zoophthora radicans kills both adult and larval stages of the diamondback moth. At IACR-Rothamsted, a novel strategy for diamondback moth control, based upon a fast entry/ slow exit trap containing the female sex pheromone and the pathogen, is under development. Male moths are attracted into an inoculation chamber where they are showered with infective conidia of ...

There is a scarcity of studies concerning Plutella xylostella L. dealing with either interactions between partial plant resistance and insecticides or multitrophic interactions (with or without insecticides). Such studies are vital to allow improved understanding of possible interactions in IPM programmes and may help both to develop approaches which enhance cultural and biological controls and...

Parasitism by endoparasitoid wasps changes the expression of various host genes, and alters host immune and developmental processes. However, it is not clearly understood how parasitism changes host gene expression in a whole genome scale. This study focused on an epigenetic control of Cotesia plutellae, an endoparasitoid wasp, against its host, Plutella xylostella. Two DNA methyltransferases (...

The evaluation of Apanteles plutellae Kurdj and two introduced parasites, Diadegma eucerophaga Grav and Thyraeella collaris Horstn of Plutella xylostella was carried out by first measuring the searching efficiency (in terms of area of discovery (a), the killing power (K), and other biological attributes in the laboratory, and then in the field. The laboratory results indicated that D. euceropha...