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Thursday, November 01, 2012

Cotton Bollworm Adapting to Bt Cotton in China via Diverse Mutations


Bruce E. Tabashnik and Yidong Wu ISB, Oct 2012
Monitoring data from China have provided an early warning of resistance to Bt cotton in the cotton bollworm, Helicoverpa armigera, a major lepidopteran pest of cotton. Bioassays show that the frequency of cotton bollworm resistance to Cry1Ac is higher in northern China, where Bt cotton has been grown intensively, than in areas of northwestern China where Bt cotton planting has been limited. Baseline data show that before Bt cotton was introduced in China, cotton bollworm susceptibility to Cry1Ac was not lower in northern China than in north-western China, which implies that exposure to Bt cotton in northern China selected for resistance to Cry1Ac.



2 comments:

  1. Foster Boondoggle5:44 AM

    Dear Mr. Tribe -

    I have a suggestion for a great service to humanity that you could perform in your copious spare time. The world needs a one-stop-shop for GMO debunkery. Basically, a collection of all of the urban legend type anti-GMO arguments (e.g., "they're untested" and "they cause increased pesticide use" and "they make indian farmers commit suicide"), followed by the actual facts and links to the primary sources. Sort of like the "Bad Astronomy" website, or like Snopes but specifically for GMOs.

    It takes someone with your breadth of expertise and knowledge to put something like that together, and it would be extremely helpful for those of us living in hotbeds of uncritical pseudo-environmentalism as a gentle pointer for our friends.

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    Replies
    1. That's a good suggestion Foster.

      There is a good myths debunking here

      http://academicsreview.org/reviewed-content/genetic-roulette/

      that I did with Bruce Chassy at Academics Review

      Delete