The popular new strategy of planting genetically engineered
crops that make two or more toxins to fend off insect pests rests on
assumptions that don’t always apply, UA researchers have discovered. Their
study helps explain why one major pest is evolving resistance much faster than
predicted and offers ideas for more sustainable pest control.
A strategy widely used to prevent pests from quickly
adapting to crop-protecting toxins may fail in some cases unless better
preventive actions are taken, suggests new research by University of Arizona
entomologists published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Corn and cotton have been genetically modified to produce
pest-killing proteins from the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis, or Bt for
short. Compared with typical insecticide sprays, the Bt toxins produced by
genetically engineered crops are much safer for people and the environment,
explained Yves Carrière, a professor of entomology in the UA College of
Agriculture and Life Sciences who led the study.