Microbes are ubiquitous, survive in all sorts of environments and have a profound influence on the earth. In the present day plant protection scenario, development of resistance to chemical pesticides is the major hurdle in insect pest management. In recent years, several microbes with potential insecticidal properties have come to light. Viruses, bacteria, fungi and protozoa that are known to ...

Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to: Susana Santos and Carla Crespo Faculdade de Psicologia e Ciências da Educação, Universidade de Coimbra, Rua do Colégio Novo, Apartado 6153, 3001-802 Coimbra, Portugal. E-mail: [email protected] Note. This research was supported by PEst-OE/PSI/UI0192/2011 Projecto Estratégico Instituto de Psicologia Cognitiva, Desenvolvimen...

Areawide pest management involves the uniform application of a pest control strategy over wide geographic areas. Therefore, these programs are likely to impose intense selective pressures, and the risk for resistance development among pest species for which areawide management programs are implemented is likely to be high. Pilot studies for areawide management of western corn rootworm, Diabroti...

The mode of action of pesticides is extremely fascinating because the subject covers so many fields of biology and chemistry and has many practical implications. To understand how pesticides work (their mode of action), it is necessary to understand how the pests’ targeted systems normally function. It is also helpful to understand how human systems function in order to see similarities and dif...

Background: Lepidopteran and coleopteran species are the most important pests in maize. They can be controlled using genetically modified (GM) crops expressing insecticidal Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) proteins. The long-term success of this technology demands a pest resistance management. Important information for the successful management of resistance is the baseline susceptibility of the dif...

Transgenic crops producing insecticidal toxins from Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) are widely used to control pests, but their benefits will be lost if pests evolve resistance. The mandated high-dose/refuge strategy for delaying pest resistance requires planting refuges of toxin-free crops near Bt crops to promote survival of susceptible pests. We report that pollen-mediated gene flow up to 31 m f...

Bacillus thuringiensis Cry3Aa and Cry3Ca proteins have been reported to be toxic against the African sweetpotato pest Cylas puncticollis. In the present work, the binding sites of these proteins in C. puncticollis brush border vesicles suggest the occurrence of different binding sites, but only one of them is shared. Our results suggest that pest resistance mediated by alteration of the shared ...

African rice gall midge (AfRGM) is one of the most destructive pests of irrigated and lowland African ecologies. This study aimed to identify the quantitative trait loci (QTL) associated with AfRGM pest incidence and resistance in three independent bi-parental rice populations (ITA306xBW348-1, ITA306xTOG7106 and ITA306xTOS14519), and to conduct meta QTL (mQTL) analysis to explore whether any ge...

Fitness costs can delay pest resistance to crops that produce insecticidal toxins derived from the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt), and past research has found that entomopathogens impose fitness costs of Bt resistance. In addition, entomopathogens can be used for integrated pest management by providing biological control of pests. The western corn rootworm, Diabrotica virgifera virgifera...