Pyramided Bt Corn Research Articles

Susceptibility of Louisiana and Florida populations of Spodoptera frugiperda (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) to transgenic Agrisure®Viptera™ 3111 corn

In the United States, fall armyworm, Spodoptera frugiperda (J. E. Smith) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae), is a target species of transgenic corn (Zea mays L.) expressing pyramided Bacillus thuringiensis proteins. In 2011, a total of 150 F2 two-parent families of S. frugiperda were established using single-pair matings of feral individuals collected from three locations in Louisiana and Florida. The objective of this study was to determine the susceptibility of these field derived families of S. frugiperda to a pyramided Bt corn hybrid containing Agrisure®Viptera™ 3111 traits. For each F2 family, 96 neonates were assayed on leaf tissue of Agrisure®Viptera™ 3111 corn in the laboratory. None of the 150 families survived for 7 days on leaf tissue of the Bt corn plants. The results demonstrate that the field populations of S. frugiperda collected from Louisiana and Florida were susceptible to the pyramided Bt corn product containing Agrisure®Viptera™ 3111 traits. The data generated in this study can be used as baseline data for resistance monitoring.

Larval survival and plant injury of Cry1Ab-susceptible, -resistant, and -heterozygous genotypes of the sugarcane borer on transgenic corn containing single or pyramided Bt genes

Transgenic corn (Zea mays L.) products expressing multiple Bt proteins targeting a same group of insect pests have become commercially available in the U.S. The first commercialized pyramided Bt corn technologies for managing lepidopteran pests include Genuity® VT Triple Pro™ and Genuity® SmartStax™. In this study, larval survival and plant injury of Cry1Ab-susceptible (Cry1Ab-SS), -resistant (Cry1Ab-RR), and -heterozygous (Cry1Ab-RS) genotypes of the sugarcane borer, Diatraea saccharalis F., on five commercial corn hybrids were evaluated in a leaf tissue bioassay and two greenhouse trials during 2010–2011. The five hybrids included two non-Bt corn and three Bt corn hybrids representing three transgenic technologies: YieldGard® Corn Borer, Genuity® VT Triple Pro™, and Genuity® SmartStax™. YieldGard® Corn Borer corn contains a single Bt protein (Cry1Ab), while Genuity® VT Triple Pro™ and SmartStax™ contain two and three pyramided Cry genes targeting above-ground lepidopteran pests, respectively. An average of 75.5% of larvae survived after 6 d on non-Bt corn leaf tissue. The 6-d survivorship on Cry1Ab corn leaf tissue was 3% for Cry1Ab-SS, 19% for Cry1Ab-RS, and 35% for Cry1Ab-RR larvae, while none of the three insect genotypes survived for 6-d on the leaf tissue of the two pyramided Bt corn hybrids. After 21 d on whole plants in the greenhouse, 42.6–62.5% of larvae survived on non-Bt corn plants. Larval survivorship rates on YieldGard® Corn Borer plants after 21 d in the greenhouse were 4.7–5.6% for Cry1Ab-SS, 29.4–32.5 % for Cry1Ab-RS, and 36.6–45.6% for Cry1Ab-RR. Both pyramided Bt corn hybrids were very effective against D. saccharalis regardless of the insect genotype with 21-d survivorship of <2% for Cry1Ab-SS and Cry1Ab-RS, and <5% for Cry1Ab-RR. Cry1Ab-RS and –RR caused significant entry/exit holes and tunneling inside the plant stalks of non-Bt and YieldGard® corn plants, while they caused little injury on the two pyramided Bt corn hybrids. The data generated from both the leaf tissue and whole plant tests showed that the Cry1Ab-resistant D. saccharalis was susceptible to the pyramided Bt corn hybrids. The results suggest that the pyramided Bt corn containing Genuity® VT Triple Pro™ or SmartStax™ traits should offer a means for Cry1Ab resistance management in D. saccharalis.

Scant evidence supports EPA's pyramided Bt corn refuge size of 5%

Scant evidence supports EPA's pyramided Bt corn refuge size of 5%

Preventing insect adaptation to insect-resistant crops: are seed mixtures or refugia the best strategy?

Transgenic crops expressing insecticidal toxins could soon provide safe, clean and effective means of pest control, but their usefulness will be short-lived if insects adapt to the toxins. Two planting strategies are among those that have been recommended to delay crop failure: susceptible insects could be conserved by planting either ‘refugia’, i.e. separate fields of toxic and toxin-free crop, or ‘seed mixtures’ of toxic and toxin-free plants in the same fields. However, we show that if insects can move from plant to plant, seed mixtures may actually hasten insect resistance compared with pure stands of toxic plants. Insect movement causes an increase in effective genetic dominance which can counteract reduced selection due to the mixture. This failure of seed mixtures is likely under just those conditions, low genetic dominance of resistance, which predict a good chance for resistance to the toxin to evolve slowly. Seed mixtures, unlike refugia, are therefore failure prone. This result also suggests potential problems with a third strategy, tissue-specific expression of toxins, which essentially provides a mixture of toxin-free and toxin-containing tissues on the same plant. However, better information and modelling are urgently required to evaluate alternative means of slowing insect adaptation to resistant crop plants. Legislation for toxinfree refugia may provide one of the best available means for conserving insect susceptibility.