ABSTRACT
The protection of food plants from insect pests is a constant challenge to growers and scientists worldwide. The increasing demands placed on agriculture to produce high yielding crops with less input is a daunting challenge that will require the use of several technologies in the future. A new technology for crop protection has been the development of several different transformation systems that can incorporate foreign genes into the plant’s genome. Plants such as cotton, potato and maize have been transformed to contain a gene that produces an insecticidal endotoxin protein from Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt). This unique approach has several advantages over current pesticide technology. The stage of insect targeted is now the most vulnerable, the neonate, rather than older instars. A second advantage is that the plant will continue to produce the agent as required throughout the season, thus avoiding the loss of control due to the breakdown of the insecticidal protein and the need for repeated insecticidal applications. However, this approach will not prevent the development of insect resistance to control agents such as Bt. This concern is greatly increased due to the lack of alternative genes currently available to control these insects and provide resistance management options. There are also other serious pest insects that are not susceptible to the current array of Bts. This lack of genes has led to investigation of other potential proteins for insect control. One potential source of insect resistance genes may be plant lectins.
