Fees or refuges: which is better for the sustainable management of insect resistance to transgenic Bt corn?
The evolution of resistance in insect pests will imperil the efficiency of transgenic insect-resistant crops. The currently advised strategy to delay resistance evolution is to plant non-toxic crops (refuges) in close proximity to plants engineered to express the toxic protein of the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt). We seek answers to the question of how to induce growers to plant non-toxic crops. A first strategy, applied in the United States, is to require Bt growers to plant non-Bt refuges and control their compliance with requirements. We suggest that an alternative strategy is to make Bt seed more expensive by instituting a user fee, and we compare both strategies by integrating economic processes into a spatially explicit, population genetics model. Our results indicate that although both strategies may allow the sustainable management of the common pool of Bt-susceptibility alleles in pest populations, for the European corn borer (Ostrinia nubilalis) one of the most serious pests in the US corn belt, the fee strategy is less efficient than refuge requirements.
Vacher
Corinne
C
Université Montpellier II, Institut des Sciences de l'Evolution de Montpellier (UMR 5554), 34095 Montpellier Cedex 05, France. vacher@antibes.inra.fr
Bourguet
Denis
D
Desquilbet
Marion
M
Lemarié
Stéphane
S
Ambec
Stéfan
S
Hochberg
Michael E
ME
D000818:Animals; D000083722:Bacillus thuringiensis Toxins; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D001427:Bacterial Toxins / Q000235:genetics*; D018556:Crops, Agricultural / Q000191:economics*; D004731:Endotoxins / Q000235:genetics*; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D006460:Hemolysin Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D007300:Insect Control / Q000191:economics / Q000379:methods*; D018803:Models, Economic; D008957:Models, Genetic; D009036:Moths / Q000235:genetics; D010572:Pest Control, Biological / Q000191:economics*; D010935:Plant Diseases / Q000469:parasitology; D030821:Plants, Genetically Modified / Q000235:genetics / Q000469:parasitology*; D012639:Seeds / Q000235:genetics; D014481:United States; D003313:Zea mays / Q000191:economics / Q000235:genetics / Q000469:parasitology
D000083722:Bacillus thuringiensis Toxins; D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D001427:Bacterial Toxins; D004731:Endotoxins; D006460:Hemolysin Proteins; C030956:insecticidal crystal protein, Bacillus Thuringiensis