Comparing the impact of conventional pesticide and use of a transgenic pest-resistant crop on the beneficial carabid beetle Pterostichus melanarius.
The potential impact of a chemical pesticide control method has been compared with that of transgenic plants expressing a protease inhibitor conferring insect resistance by utilising a tritrophic system comprising the crop plant Brassica napus (L.) (Oilseed rape), the pest mollusc Deroceras reticulatum (Müller) and the predatory carabid beetle Pterostichus melanarius (Illiger). Cypermethrin, as the most widely used pesticide in UK oilseed rape (OSR) cultivation, was selected as the conventional treatment. OSR expressing a cysteine protease inhibitor, oryzacystatin-1 (OC-1), was the transgenic comparator. In feeding trials, D. reticulatum showed no significant long-term effects on measured life history parameters (survival, weight gain, food consumption) as a result of exposure to either the cypermethrin or OC-1 treatment. However, D. reticulatum was able to respond to the presence of the dietary inhibitor by producing two novel proteases following exposure to OC-1-expressing OSR. Similarly, P. melanarius showed no detectable alterations in mortality, weight gain or food consumption when feeding on D. reticulatum previously fed either pesticide-contaminated or GM plant material. Furthermore, as with the slug, a novel form of protease, approximately M(r) 27 kDa, was induced in the carabid in response to feeding on slugs fed OC-1-expressing OSR.
Mulligan
Evan A
EA
Institute for Research on Environment and Sustainability, School of Biology, University of Newcastle Upon-Tyne, Newcastle NE1 7RU, UK.
Ferry
Natalie
N
Jouanin
Lise
L
Walters
Keith Fa
KF
Port
Gordon R
GR
Gatehouse
Angharad Mr
AM
D000818:Animals; D029688:Brassica napus / Q000235:genetics; D001517:Coleoptera / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology; D015891:Cystatins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D003546:Cysteine Endopeptidases / Q000378:metabolism; D015853:Cysteine Proteinase Inhibitors / Q000235:genetics / Q000494:pharmacology; D020387:Food Chain; D005766:Gastrointestinal Contents; D049851:Gastropoda / Q000187:drug effects / Q000201:enzymology; D007306:Insecticides; D010447:Peptide Hydrolases / Q000032:analysis; D010572:Pest Control, Biological; D018515:Plant Leaves / Q000378:metabolism; D030821:Plants, Genetically Modified / Q000378:metabolism*; D011722:Pyrethrins / Q000032:analysis / Q000633:toxicity*; D006113:United Kingdom
D015891:Cystatins; D015853:Cysteine Proteinase Inhibitors; D007306:Insecticides; D011722:Pyrethrins; C017160:cypermethrin; D010447:Peptide Hydrolases; D003546:Cysteine Endopeptidases