Plant defensins are small (5-10 kDa) basic peptides thought to be an important component of the defense pathway against fungal and/or bacterial pathogens. To understand the role of plant defensins in protecting plants against the brown planthopper, a type of insect herbivore, we isolated the Brassica rapa Defensin 1 (BrD1) gene and introduced it into rice (Oryza sativa L.) to produce stable transgenic plants. The BrD1 protein is homologous to other plant defensins and contains both an N-terminal endoplasmic reticulum signal sequence and a defensin domain, which are highly conserved in all plant defensins. Based on a phylogenetic analysis of the defensin domain of various plant defensins, we established that BrD1 belongs to a distinct subgroup of plant defensins. Relative to the wild type, transgenic rices expressing BrD1 exhibit strong resistance to brown planthopper nymphs and female adults. These results suggest that BrD1 exhibits insecticidal activity, and might be useful for developing cereal crop plants resistant to sap-sucking insects, such as the brown planthopper.

:Three lepidopteran insect pests of the legume pod borer, Maruca vitrata (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae), the soybean pod worm, Matsumuraeses phaseoli (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae) and an Ostrinia spp. (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae) attacking adzuki bean, Vigna angularis, were confirmed as the major insect pests during the reproductive developmental stage of adzuki bean, and M. vitrata existed dominantly. Almost all plants in the adzuki bean field were injured by at least one of the three species, and 15~60% of reproductive organs were injured. Unbloomed inflorescence occurred continuously through the reproductive stage of adzuki bean. While the flower was many at the early stage and its number soon decreased, the pod was few at the early stage, but its number increased soon and maintained at a constant level. The results suggested that the adzuki bean injured by insect pests compensate the flower loss by developing new inflorescence, but the compensation do not cause the development of new pods. While M. vitrata and M. phaseoli were observed in flowers, pods and stem mainly during the first half of reproductive stage of adzuki bean, Ostrinia spp. was observed only in pods and stem during the second half. In addition, while all instars of larvae of M. vitrata were observed, larvae between the third and fifth instars for M. pahseoli and Ostrinia spp. were observed. KEY WORDS

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Oviposition preference of the bean bug, Riptortus clavatus to sites on a plant and within a field, to plants at different developmental stages, and to different leguminous germplasms was observed. The insect layed its eggs mainly on the back surface of leaf in the upper half of plant in both observation from oviposition cage and soybean field. The egg number in fields were observed at a statistically-same rate in marginal and inside area, and at a median value of one egg per leaf in oviposited leaves. Full seed stage of soybean hardly affected oviposition preference of the insect. A statistically-significant difference in oviposition to different leguminous germplasms was observed.

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