Effects of transgenic cry1Ab rice pollen on fitness of Propylea japonica (Thunberg)

Abstract

The transgenic rice lines Kemingdao 1 (KMD1) and Kemingdao 2 (KMD2) contain a synthetic cry1Ab gene derived from Bacillus thuringiensis Berliner and are highly resistant to rice stem borers and foliage-feeding lepidopterans. Propylea japonica (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) is an important predator of rice insect pests; it also uses rice pollen as a food source under natural conditions. In the present study, the effects of KMD1 and KMD2 pollen expressing Cry1Ab protein on the fitness of P. japonica were assessed in the laboratory. P. japonica larvae and adults were provided with the following four diets: KMD1 pollen with the aphid Myzus persicae, KMD2 pollen with M. persicae, nontransgenic Xiushui 11 (parent variety of KMD1 and KMD2) pollen with M. persicae, and M. persicae only (KMD1-pollen, KMD2-pollen, XS11-pollen, and aphid treatments, respectively). The results showed that the longevity of female adults in the KMD1-pollen treatment was significantly lower than that in the XS11-pollen treatment, but was not significantly different from that in the KMD2-pollen and aphid treatments. Newly emerged males in the KMD2-pollen treatment were evidently less vital than those in the XS11-pollen treatment, but not significantly different from those in the KMD1-pollen and aphid treatments. The development, survival and reproduction indices for the three pollen treatments did not differ significantly from one another. In short, Bt toxin expressed in Bt rice pollen had no evident negative impacts on P. japonica fitness when the pollen was used as a food by this beetle.

Influence of five host plants of Aphis gossypii Glover on some population parameters of Hippodamia variegata (Goeze)

“…Some predatory ladybird beetles were found to feed directly on prey's host plant tissues and their development could be affected (Bai et al 2005;Moser et al 2008;Lundgren et al 2009). Therefore, some biological characteristic differences of H. variegata fed on aphids from different host plants might be caused directly or indirectly (prey-mediated) by host plants because the aphids and plant leaves were provided together to the beetles.…”

Setting the record straight: a rebuttal to an erroneous analysis on transgenic insecticidal crops and natural enemies

“…Although they state ''datadriven reading of the quantitative data…provided a more accurate picture of the literature…than (the reviews) by O'Callaghan et al (2005) and Romeis et al (2006)'', they provide no evidence to support this statement. They cite Bai et al (2005) as an example of the need to use their analytical methods to tease out negative results, but neglect to note that in the Bai et al (2005) study total larval development and survivorship of Propylea japonica (Thunberg) (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) were unaffected by exposure to Cry proteins. These are the quantities that ultimately affect population growth and are of primary importance as measurement endpoints in risk assessment studies (including those conducted for pesticide assessment; Romeis et al 2008).…”

“…These are the quantities that ultimately affect population growth and are of primary importance as measurement endpoints in risk assessment studies (including those conducted for pesticide assessment; Romeis et al 2008). For this reason, Bai et al (2005) correctly concluded ''Bt rice pollen had no negative impacts on P. japonica fitness…''. Lövei et al (2009) also fail to justify the many other instances of nonindependence in their data set where multiple, correlated life history and behavioral traits were measured on the same cohort of subject organisms.…”

Pollen from Cry1Ac/CpTI-transgenic cotton does not affect the pollinating beetle Haptoncus luteolus

“…Direct exposure of Cheilomenes sexmaculatus larvae to Cry1Ab and Cry1Ac toxins resulted in reduced larval survival and adult emergene as compared to the controls, however, there were no adverse effects of Cry1A toxins on coccinellid beetle when the larvae were reared on Aphis craccivora Koch fed on Cry1A in the artificial diet (Dhillon and Sharma 2009). Minimal or no impacts of Bt plants or Cry1A toxins to predatory beetles were also reported (Bai et al 2005;Ferry et al 2006). Bt maize had no negative effects on survival of the predator Stethorus punctillum, or on the developmental time through to adulthood, and no subsequent effects on ladybird fecundity were observed (Á lvarez-Alfageme et al 2008(Á lvarez-Alfageme et al , 2009).…”