Use of Taxonomic and Trait-Based Approaches to Evaluate the Effect of Bt maize Expressing Cry1Ie Protein on Non-Target Collembola: A Case Study in Northeast China.

Bai-Feng Wang,Zhi-Lei Jiang,Jun-Qi Yin,Xin-Yuan Song,Gadi V P Reddy,Feng-Ci Wu

doi:10.3390/insects12020088

Bai-Feng Wang, Zhi-Lei Jiang + Show 4 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/insects12020088

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Abstract

Simple SummaryBt crops have been planted globally since the first commercial Bt maize was cultivated in the United States in 1996. Bt protein from Bt crops can be released to the soil and may potentially affect the non-target soil fauna. Collembola are one of the three most ubiquitous and abundant soil fauna, they have been widely used as indicators of environmental pollution, IE09S034 is a new cry1Ie maize breed independently developed by China, and Northeast China is the most important location for maize production in China. Therefore, this study aimed to clarify whether non-target soil Collembola were influenced by the cultivation of cry1Ie maize in Northeast China. Our results showed that maize variety had no significant effects on collembolan abundance, diversity, and morphological trait, indicating that two years cultivation of cry1Ie maize does not have a bad influence on Collembola in Northeast China.To evaluate the effect of Bt maize expressing Cry1Ie protein on non-target soil Collembola, a two-year field study was conducted in Northeast China. Bt maize line IE09S034 and its near isoline Zong 31 were selected as experimental crops; we investigated the collembolan community using both taxonomic and trait-based approaches, and elucidated the relationship between environmental variables and the collembolan community using redundancy analysis (RDA).The ANOVA results showed that maize variety neither had significant effect on the parameters based on taxonomic approach (abundance, species richness, Shannon–Wiener index, Pielou’s evenness index), nor on the parameters based on trait-based approach (ocelli number, body length, pigmentation level, and furcula development) in either year. The results of RDA also showed that maize variety did not affect collembolan community significantly. These results suggest that two years cultivation of cry1Ie maize does not affect collembolan community in Northeast China.

Highlights

Bt crops have been planted globally since the first commercial Bt maize was cultivated in the United States in 1996 [1]
The properties of the Bt crops may have changed owing to the transformation of exogenous genes, for example, Saxena and Stotzky found Bt corn had a higher lignin content than non-Bt corn [14], Fang et al reported that the content of lignin and total organic carbon in Bt maize were higher than that in non-Bt maize [15]
Collembola, as one of the three primary varieties of soil fauna, are sensitive to environmental changes [22,23], so they are often used as indicators of pollution and disturbance of soil ecosystems [46,47], and they have been used in evaluating the effects of Bt crops on non-target soil fauna [48,49,50]

Summary

Introduction

Bt crops have been planted globally since the first commercial Bt maize was cultivated in the United States in 1996 [1]. The euedaphic group (typically represented by the families Onychiuridae and Tullbergiidae)are permanent soil-dwellers, with poor mobility, that utilize fungi from plant root as their food source, are usually white in color, have no ocellus, and the antennae and furculae are underdeveloped; in contrast, the semi-edaphic group (typically represented by the family Isotomidae) that live in superficial soil layer and leaf litter, with normal mobility, utilize fungi from fragmented leaf litter as their food sources, are usually colored but without a pattern, have fewer ocelli, and the antennae, furculae and other appendages are moderately developed; epedaphic group (typically represented by the families Entomobryidae and Sminthurididae) that live at the surface and on vegetation, with strong mobility, and typically utilize fungi from fresh leaf litter as their food source, are usually colored with patterns, have relatively more ocelli, and more highly developed appendages [27] The changes in these morphological traits are useful in assessing effects of environmental change on the collembolan community [25,28,29,30,31]. Since the cultivation of Bt crops is increasing, it is important to study its effects on soil Collembola using the combination of taxonomic and trait-based approaches at the species level

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