Scientists Develop New Bt Toxins against Insect Pests

New versions of Bt toxins Cry1Ab and Cry1Ac have been developed by the scientists at Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology in Jena, Germany. These are Cry1AbMod and Cry1AcMod which were found to be effective against five insect pests such as diamondback moth, cotton bollworm, and European corn borer. What amazed the scientists most in this study is that the novel toxins were effective against the highly resistant strain of tobacco budworm. The novel toxins can be used alone or in combination with other Bt toxins.

"When we studied the new Bt toxins in twelve resistant and non-resistant strains of five major pest species, the results of our experiments were encouraging but surprising. The new toxins are also effective against strains whose Bt resistance is not based on cadherin mutations," says David G. Heckel, director of the Department of Entomology at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology and co-author of the study.

View the original news release at http://www.mpg.de/4607123/bacteria_toxins_against_insect_pests. The research article is available at http://www.nature.com/nbt/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nbt.1988.html.