Bt Rice Lines Exhibit High Yield Amidst Insect Pressure

The advancement of modern biotechnology caused the promotion of breeding of transgenic rice in China, and thus a number of transgenic rice lines are in the pipeline towards commercialization. To evaluate the field performance of these transgenic lines, researcher Hui Xia of Fudan University and colleagues, observed the key agronomic characters of two insect resistant Bt rice lines that have been granted biosafety certificates for commercial production in China. These transgenic lines were compared with their nontransgenic counterparts under environmental conditions with significant differences in insect pressure.

Results showed that the Bt rice lines have better field performances than their nontransgenic counterparts, in terms of number of panicles and number of filled seeds per plant, under environmental conditions without insecticide application. Furthermore, Bt rice lines exhibited more favorable yield performances under environmental conditions with insecticide for non-target insects than the previous setup without insecticide.

Thus, insect resistant Bt rice could maintain high yield even if faced with high insect pressure. For better performance, there should also be a proper application of insecticides for non-target insects.

Subscribers of the Transgenic Research journal may read the full text article at http://www.springerlink.com/content/r711331278258263/.