Tritrophic Interactions of Transgenic Bacillus thuringiensis Corn, Anaphothrips obscurus (Thysanoptera: Thripidae), and the Predator Orius majusculus (Heteroptera: Anthocoridae)

By C. Zwahlen, Wolfgang Nentwig, Franz Bigler, Angelika Hilbeck. 2000

115 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Abstract Laboratory feeding experiments using transgenic Bacillus thuringiensis variety kurstaki (Berliner) corn plants were carried out to study the effects of B. thuringiensis-fed herbivorous prey on the predator Orius majusculus (Reuter). Host plants were a transgenic B. thuringiensis-expressing (Cry1Ab) corn hybrid and the corresponding untransformed isogenic B. thuringiensis-free corn hybrid. The herbivorous prey species used in the experiment was Anaphothrips obscurus (Müller), a thysanopteran pest of corn, not sensitive to Cry1Ab toxin. The objectives were to quantify the effects of B. thuringiensis-fed prey on the development and mortality of immature O. majusculus. There was no significant difference in total mean mortality from hatch to adult eclosion between O. majusculus nymphs reared on B. thuringiensis-fed or B. thuringiensis-free prey. Similarly, no significant differences in total developmental time of O. majusculus was detected when reared on the two different prey types. Overall mortality was low, confirming that the methodology used was appropriate. We propose this approach as an efficient standardized preregistrational testing for side effects of transgenic plants on small predators such as Orius spp.

Subfields: Insect Science, Molecular Biology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/2e418f17ccb0ad2577f74eab72109660a7375b0b

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Citations in the corpus

Effect of Bt-toxin (Cry1Ac) in Transgenic Cotton on the Adult Longevity of Four Heteropteran Predators (2002, background): “Possible explanations for the differencebetween the studies byPilcher et al. (1997) and Zwahlen et al. (2000) and our results are discussed below (Inter-species differences).”
Arthropod Abundance and Diversity in Bt and Non-Bt Cotton Fields (2004, background): “Many studies of the impact of Bt crops on nontarget organisms have examined the interaction of one or a few species in the laboratory (Sims 1995; Hillbeck et al. 1998a,b, 1999; Zwahlen et al. 2000; Dutton et al. 2002).”
The impact of transgenic plants on natural enemies: a critical review of laboratory studies (2005, result): “A mortality rate of around 15– 20% (e.g., Zwahlen et al., 2000; Burgess et al., 2002) can be considered acceptable, while several experiments reported a much higher mortality in the control groups (e.g., Down et al., 2003).”
Exposure of arthropod predators to Cry1Ab toxin in Bt maize fields (2006, background): “was investigated in several studies, all of which detected no detrimental effects on this predator group (Pilcher et al., 1997; Zwahlen et al., 2000; Bourguet et al., 2002; Jasinski et al., 2003; Musser & Shelton, 2003b; Pons et al., 2004; de la Poza et al., 2005).”
A faunistic approach to assess potential side-effects of genetically modified Bt-Corn on non-target arthropods under field conditions (2004, unknown): “…majusculus (Heteroptera: Anthocoridae) was fed with the thrips Anaphothrips obscurus (Thysanoptera: Thripidae) reared on Bt-corn expressing CryIAb (Zwahlen et al. , 2000), a result that was confirmed in the field when comparing abundances of nymphs and adults of O. insidiosus on Bt-corn with…”
Impact of Transgenic Bacillus thuringiensis Corn and Crop Phenology on Five Nontarget Arthropods (2005, background): “…(Johnson and Gould 1992, Johnson 1997, Mascarenhas and Luttrell 1997, Pilcher et al. 1997, Riddick and Barbosa 1998, Hilbeck et al. 1998a, b, 1999, Schuler et al. 1999a, b, Zwahlen et al. 2000, Wold et al. 2001, Bernal et al. 2002, Bourguet et al. 2002, Al-Deeb et al. 2003, Romeis et al. 2004).”
Ecological compatibility of GM crops and biological control (2009, unknown): “The quantity of honeydew produced by hemipterans may be Hilbeck et al. (1998a, 1999), Zwahlen et al. (2000), Duan et al. (2006, 2007, 2008b), Torres and Ruberson (2007 (2008) lowered (Rao et al., 1998; Kanrar et al., 2002), unaffected (Shieh et al.,1994), or increased (Bernal et al., 2002a; Faria…”
Abundance of non-target pests in transgenic Bt-maize: A farm scale study (2005, background): “…in the field (Pilcher et al., 1997; Bourguet et al., 2002; Musser & Shelton, 2003; De la Poza et al., 2005) or the laboratory (Orr & Landis, 1997; Zwahlen et al., 2000; Al-Deeb et al., 2001; Dutton et al., 2002; Candolfi et al., 2004; Pons et al., 2004) except for the lacewing Chrysoperla carnea…”
Impact of Transgenic VIP3A × Cry1Ab Lepidopteran-resistant Field Corn on the Nontarget Arthropod Community (2005, background): “…(Flint et al. 1995, Orr and Landis 1997, Pilcher et al. 1997, Lozzia and Rigamonti 1998, Lozzia 1999, Lozzia et al. 1999, Al-Deeb et al. 2001, Zwahlen et al. 2000, Dively and Rose 2003, Jasinski et al. 2003, CandolÞ et al. 2003, Steffey et al. 2004, Sisterson et al. 2004, Daly and Buntin…”