Scientists Investigate Effects of Cry1Ac Stingless Bee Larvae
June 29, 2012| |
Species of stingless bees like Trigona spinipes are known as important pollinators in tropical ecosystems. Thus, Maria Augusta Lima from Universidade Federal de Viçosa, Brazil, together with other scientists, conducted a study to test the possible effects on T. spinipes larvae of Cry1Ac-containing diet. Cry1Ac is a protein from Bacillus thuringiensis expressed in insect resistant cotton plants.
After rearing stingless bees, the team provided the larvae with diets of different treatments: pure larval diet, diluted larval diet, larval diet diluted with Cry1Ac solution. Results showed Bt protein ingestion did not affect the development of worker larvae. However, diluted larval diet caused a slight increase in larval mortality. Therefore, Cry1Ac has no harmful effects on stingless bees under field conditions.
Read the abstract of the study at http://www.springerlink.com/content/5u401v065g2162t1/.
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