Pest Management Science (2014) 70, 1283-1290

Galina Gindin, Zvi Mendel, Bella Levitin, Pradeep Kumar, Tal Levi, Preeti Shahi, Vadim Khasdan, Dan Weinthal, Tatiana Kuznetsova, Monica Einav, Ariel Kushmaro, Alex Protasov, Arieh Zaritsky and Eitan Ben-Dov (2014)
The basis for rootstock resilient to Capnodis species: screening for genes encoding δ-endotoxins from Bacillus thuringiensis
Pest Management Science 70 (8), 1283-1290
Abstract:
BACKGROUND
Conventional methods often fail to control the flatheaded borers Capnodis spp., major pests of stone fruit trees; the larvae are protected from insecticides and predation because they feed deep in the roots. A potential solution is transgenic trees producing in their roots toxic compounds such as Cry proteins of Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt).
RESULTS
Toxicities against Capnodis larvae were demonstrated by exploiting a recently designed artificial larval diet and an available collection of field isolated Bt. An isolate of Bt tenebrionis (Btt) from commercial bioinsecticide (Novodor) displayed LC₅₀ and LC₉₅ values of 3.2 and 164 mg g⁻¹, respectively, against neonates of Capnodis tenebrionis, whereas values of the most toxic field isolate K-7 were 1.9 and 25.6 mg g⁻¹ respectively. Weights of surviving larvae after 1 month on diets containing low concentrations of K-7 (0.1-1.0 mg g⁻¹) were lower than on Btt or untreated larvae. K-7 was also toxic against larvae of C. cariosa and C. miliaris and found to harbour genes encoding Cry9Ea-like and Cry23Aa/Cry37Aa binary toxins.
CONCLUSION
Larvae of Capnodis spp. are susceptible to Bt Cry toxins. Expressing cry genes active against these pests thus seems a feasible solution towards production of transgenic rootstock trees resilient to the pest.
(The abstract is excluded from the Creative Commons licence and has been copied with permission by the publisher.)
Link to article at publishers website
Database assignments for author(s): Eitan Ben-Dov, Zvi Mendel, Alexey Protasov, Galina Gindin

Research topic(s) for pests/diseases/weeds:
biocontrol - natural enemies
Research topic(s) for beneficials or antagonists:
evaluation - screening - selection

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Pest and/or beneficial records:

Beneficial	Pest/Disease/Weed	Crop/Product	Country	Quarant.
	Capnodis tenebrionis
Bacillus thuringiensis (entomopathogen)	Capnodis tenebrionis
Bacillus thuringiensis var. tenebrionis (entomopathogen)	Capnodis tenebrionis