Bt Indian Mustard as Trap Crop for DBM
November 16, 2007| |
Aside from the commercial value of plants expressing the Bt gene, they can also be used as a bait in the biocontrol strategy of trap cropping. Trap crop strategies offer ways to eliminate/minimize pesticide use and preserve natural enemies of crop pests while increasing or maintaining crop yield. A trap plant is used to lure pests away from the main crop. The Indian mustard has been tested for use as a trap crop for protection of cabbage from the diamondback moth (DBM). Scientists from the Cornell University constructed “dead-end” trap crops by introducing the cry1 Bt genes to Indian mustard. DBM has a higher ovipositional preference for Indian mustard as compared to cabbage (ratio >11). Insect bioassays indicated that both the cry1C and cry1Ac plants were toxic to susceptible DBM. In addition for its use as a trap crop, Bt Indian mustard could also be useful for direct control of lepidopteran pests, if deployed as a commercial crop.
Read the abstract at http://www.springerlink.com/content/817515m106777754/?p=c93ef90609ed4f469b6d626fe677e44d&pi=0 Subscribers can read the full paper at http://www.springerlink.com/content/817515m106777754/fulltext.pdf
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