A new artificial diet for western corn rootworm larvae is compatible with and detects resistance to all current Bt toxins.

ABSTRACT: Insect resistance to transgenic crops is a growing concern for farmers, regulatory agencies, the seed industry, and researchers. Since 2009, instances of field-evolved Bt resistance or cross resistance have been documented for each of the four Bt proteins available for western corn rootworm (WCR), a major insect pest. To characterize resistance, WCR populations causing unexpected damage to Bt maize are evaluated in plant and/or diet toxicity assays. Currently, it is not possible to make direct comparisons of data from different Bt proteins due to differing proprietary artificial diets. Our group has developed a new, publicly available diet (WCRMO-1) with improved nutrition for WCR larvae. For the current manuscript, we tested the compatibility of all Bt proteins currently marketed for WCR

SUBMITTER: Ludwick DC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5876330 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature