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ScienceDaily_2013 14544.txt

#Multi-toxin biotech crops not silver bullets, scientists warnthe popular new strategy of planting genetically engineered crops that make two or more toxins to fend off insect pests rests on assumptions that don't always apply UA researchers have discovered. Their study helps explain why one major pest is evolving resistance much faster than predicted and offers ideas for more sustainable pest control. A strategy widely used to prevent pests from quickly adapting to crop-protecting toxins may fail in some cases unless better preventive actions are taken suggests new research by University of Arizona entomologists published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Corn and cotton have been modified genetically to produce pest-killing proteins from the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis or Bt for short. Compared with typical insecticide sprays the Bt toxins produced by genetically engineered crops are much safer for people and the environment explained Yves Carriã re a professor of entomology in the UA College of Agriculture and Life sciences who led the study. Although Bt crops have helped to reduce insecticide sprays boost crop yields and increase farmer profits their benefits will be short-lived if pests adapt rapidly said Bruce Tabashnik a co-author of the study and head of the UA department of entomology. Our goal is to understand how insects evolve resistance so we can develop and implement more sustainable environmentally friendly pest management he said. Tabashnik and Carriã re are both members of the UA's BIO5 Institute. Bt crops were grown first widely in 1996 and several pests have already become resistant to plants that produce a single Bt toxin. To thwart further evolution of pest resistance to Bt crops farmers have shifted recently to the pyramid strategy: each plant produces two or more toxins that kill the same pest. As reported in the study the pyramid strategy has been adopted extensively with two-toxin Bt cotton completely replacing one-toxin Bt cotton since 2011 in the U s. Most scientists agree that two-toxin plants will be more durable than one-toxin plants. The extent of the advantage of the pyramid strategy however rests on assumptions that are met not always the study reports. Using lab experiments computer simulations and analysis of published experimental data the new results help explain why one major pest has started to become resistant faster than anticipated. The pyramid strategy has been touted mostly on the basis of simulation models said Carriã re. We tested the underlying assumptions of the models in lab experiments with a major pest of corn and cotton. The results provide empirical data that can help to improve the models and make the crops more durable. One critical assumption of the pyramid strategy is that the crops provide redundant killing Carriã re explained. Redundant killing can be achieved by plants producing two toxins that act in different ways to kill the same pest he said so if an individual pest has resistance to one toxin the other toxin will kill it. In the real world things are complicated a bit more Carriã re's team found out. Thierry Br vault a visiting scientist from France led the lab experiments at the UA. His home institution the Center for Agricultural Research for Development or CIRAD is interested keenly in factors that could affect pest resistance to Bt crops in Africa. We obviously can't release resistant insects into the field so we breed them in the lab and bring in the crop plants to do feeding experiments Carriã re said. For their experiments the group collected cotton bollworm--also known as corn earworm or Helicoverpa zea-a species of moth that is a major agricultural pest and selected it for resistance against one of the Bt toxins Cry1ac. As expected the resistant caterpillars survived after munching on cotton plants producing only that toxin. The surprise came when Carriã re's team put them on pyramided Bt cotton containing Cry2ab in addition to Cry1ac. If the assumption of redundant killing is correct caterpillars resistant to the first toxin should survive on one-toxin plants but not on two-toxin plants because the second toxin should kill them Carriã re explained. But on the two-toxin plants the caterpillars selected for resistance to one toxin survived significantly better than caterpillars from a susceptible strain. These findings show that the crucial assumption of redundant killing does not apply in this case and may also explain the reports indicating some field populations of cotton bollworm rapidly evolved resistance to both toxins. Moreover the team's analysis of published data from eight species of pests reveals that some degree of cross-resistance between Cry1 and Cry2 toxins occurred in 19 of 21 experiments. Contradicting the concept of redundant killing cross-resistance means that selection with one toxin increases resistance to the other toxin. According to the study's authors even low levels of cross-resistance can reduce redundant killing and undermine the pyramid strategy. Carriã re explained that this is especially problematic with cotton bollworm and some other pests that are not highly susceptible to Bt toxins to begin with. The team found violations of other assumptions required for optimal success of the pyramid strategy. In particular inheritance of resistance to plants producing only Bt toxin Cry1ac was dominant which is expected to reduce the ability of refuges to delay resistance. Refuges consist of standard plants that do not make Bt toxins and thus allow survival of susceptible pests Under ideal conditions inheritance of resistance is not dominant and the susceptible pests emerging from refuges greatly outnumber the resistant pests. If so the matings between two resistant pests needed to produce resistant offspring are unlikely. But if inheritance of resistance is seen dominant as with cotton bollworm matings between a resistant moth and a susceptible moth can produce resistant offspring which hastens resistance. According to Tabashnik overly optimistic assumptions have led the EPA to greatly reduce requirements for planting refuges to slow evolution of pest resistance to two-toxin Bt crops. The new results should come as a wakeup call to consider larger refuges to push resistance further into the future Carriã re pointed out. Our simulations tell us that with 10 percent of acreage set aside for refuges resistance evolves quite fast but if you put 30 or 40 percent aside you can substantially delay it. Our main message is to be more cautious especially with a pest like the cotton bollworm Carriã re said. We need more empirical data to refine our simulation models optimize our strategies and really know how much refuge area is required. Meanwhile let's not assume that the pyramid strategy is a silver bullet. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by University of Arizona. The original article was written by Daniel Stolte. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. Journal Reference e

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