Study Shows Effect of Bt Gene Introgression on Growth and Reproduction in Wild Leaf Mustard

Scientist Yong-Bo Liu from Chinese Academy of Sciences and partners conducted a study to investigate the relative plant growth and reproduction of insect resistant and susceptible plants following the introgression of Bt-transgene from oilseed rape (Brassica napus) to wild leaf mustard (Brassica juncea).

The resulting progenies of second backcrossing led to pure and mixed stands of Bt-transgenic and non-transgenic plants under two insect treatments. To investigate the interaction between resistant and susceptible plants, different proportions of Bt plants were placed in mixed stands. In pure stands, Bt plants performed better than non-Bt plants with or without insects. In mixed stands, Bt plants developed fewer seeds than the non-Bt plants at low proportions of Bt plants without insects. Results further showed that reproductive allocation of non-Bt plants marginally increased with increasing proportions of Bt-transgenic plants under insect pressure, which led to higher total biomass and seed production per stand. Based on the findings, it was concluded that the growth of non-Bt plants was protected by Bt plants under insect pressure.

Read the research article published in Transgenic Research.