In addition to altering global ecology, technology and human population growth also affect evolutionary trajectories, dramatically accelerating evolutionary change in other species, especially in commercially important, pest, and disease organisms. Such changes are apparent in antibiotic and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) resistance to drugs, plant and insect resistance to pesticides, rapid...

Plants are continually exposed to a variety of pathogenic organisms, including bacteria, fungi and viruses. In response to these assaults, plants have developed various defense pathways to protect themselves from pathogen invasion. An understanding of the expression and regulation of genes involved in defense signaling is essential to controlling plant disease. ATL9, an Arabidopsis RING zinc fi...

Withdrawal of the use of cheap, persistent organochlorine insecticides in New Zealand pastures has shifted the emphasis of insect pest control to non-chemical methods during the last 10-15 years. The potential of plant resistance and biological control for achieving major advances in pasture pest management are illustrated by the resistance to Argentine stem weevil (Listronotus bonariensis) of ...

BACKGROUND The Colorado potato beetle, Leptinotarsa decemlineata (Say), is a major agricultural pest of commercial potatoes. Pest managers use a combination of control tactics to limit populations, including multiple insecticides. Finding a window of insecticide susceptibility and understanding genetic responses to insecticide exposure during a growing season may provide novel management recomm...

We investigated whether development of resistance to a Bt crop in the presence of a natural enemy would be slower than without the natural enemy and whether biological control, in conjunction with a Bt crop, could effectively suppress the pest population. Additionally, we investigated whether insecticide-sprayed refuges of non-Bt crops would delay or accelerate resistance to the Bt crop. We use...

the performance and flight behavior of the potato aphid macrosiphum euphorbiae was studied on the 'superior-bt' line transgenic for the cryiiia toxin of bacillus thuringien-sis (bt), resistant to the colorado potato beetle; and non transformed 'superior' line which served as control. mortality of the treated aphids was negligible and potato lines did not affect the development time of m. euphor...

Four insects species have emerged as important pests of alfalfa in the Western United States during the past decade. Cowpea aphid has long been a resident insect of the Western United States, but became a significant alfalfa pest during the past two years. The silverleaf whitefly has been a serious pest of alfalfa since 1991. Silverleaf whitefly reduces hay yield and contaminates alfalfa hay wi...

Insecticide susceptibility in tobacco budworm, Heliothis virescens (F.) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae), was determined for 8 yr (1991-2001) with larvae sampled from cotton in southern Tamaulipas, Mexico. Before 1996, when Bollgard cotton expressing the Cry1A(c) delta-endotoxin was introduced into the region, two important patterns were documented. The first was economically significant increases in r...

Agricultural intensification could reduce pressures on natural habitats, but biological constraints may mitigate the long-term benefits of improved agricultural technologies. We consider one such constraint: that imposed by resistance to pesticides. The application of pesticides places selective evolutionary pressure on pest populations. Those organisms that survive show resistance. Resistance ...

The development of insecticide resistance in insect pests is a worldwide concern and elucidating the underlying mechanisms is critical for effective crop protection. Recent studies have indicated potential links between insect gut microbiota and insecticide resistance and these may apply to the diamondback moth, Plutella xylostella (L.), a globally and economically important pest of cruciferous...