Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) Berliner is a ubiquitous soil bacterium with commercial bio pesticidal value and widely used for effective control of various important agricultural insect pests. Invasion of Fall armyworm (FAW), Spodoptera frugiperda (J.E. Smith) into India caused potential yield loss in maize production, and also it threats the cultivation of other related crops. This study was aimed to characterize and evaluate the pathogenic activity of indigenous Bt isolate T352 against fall armyworm (FAW), S. frugiperda. The Bt isolate T352 was creamy white in colour and had irregular shaped flat colonies with undulated margin. Bipyramidal shape of parasporal inclusions was found in isolate T352. The isolate produced protein bands of ̴ 130 kDa and ̴ 65 kDa size in SDS PAGE analysis. PCR screening also confirmed the presence of cry1Ab, cry1Ac, cry2Aa, cry2Ab and vip3A genes. During probit analysis, isolate T352 exhibited the LC50 of 1.927 µg/ml as against 0.421µg/ml in positive standard strain HD- 1 based on mortality observed at 72 h after treatment in leaf disc bioassay with spore crystal mixtures.

Six different rice entries along with susceptible and resistant check varieties were evaluated under glasshouseconditions for different parameters of antixenosis and antibiosis resistance against brownplanthopper(BPH, Nilaparvata lugens Stål). In antixenosis studies, proportion of insects settled on test entries in relationto the susceptible control TN1 was recorded, with average lower proportion of nymphs settled on N22-CCDTM-893 and Ptb 33 in relation to those on TN1. In antibiosis studies adult population, adultlongevity andpopulation build-up were recorded. N22-CC-DTM-893 and Ptb 33 displayed significantly better performanceas compared to other test entries in these parameters studied and did not differ from each other. Theseresults helped in relative quantification of BPH resistance levels in different test entries and N22-CC-DTM-893 show substantial levels of antixenosis and antibiosis effects on BPH and it is considered as new effectivesource of BPH resistance and can be used in resistance breeding after tagging of resistant genes/QTLslinked to brown planthopper resistance with selectable molecular markers.