ABSTRACT
Phytophagous insects are responsible for major losses in crops. For the past five decades pest control has been accomplished largely by the use of chemical pesticides, although some success has also been achieved towards producing plants with enhanced levels of endogenous resistance using conventional plant-breeding (i.e. host-plant resistance) and in vitro techniques. Recent technologies such as plant genetic engineering provide breeders with the opportunity for introducing resistance genes from foreign species into crop plants.
