European corn borer resistance: Evaluation of commercial maize hybrids and transgenic maize cultivars
1997
Barry, B.D. | Darrah, L.L.
Annual economic losses to producers because of European corn borer (ECB), Ostrinia nubilalis (Hubner), damage to maize, Zea mays (L.), amount to several million dollars. This would be even greater if not for long term host-plant resistance plant breeding programs in public and private organizations. To determine the degree of ECB resistance in commercial maize hybrids and the efficacy of transgenic plants to control ECB, experiments were conducted by manually infesting the plants in the research plots with neonate ECB larvae. Over a four-year period, 400 maize hybrids were evaluated. About 90 Per cent of the hybrids had some resistance to whorl-leaf feeding (first-generation ECB) and 75 Per cent had some resistance to sheath and sheath-collar feeding (second-generation ECB). In approximately two-thirds of these 400 hybrids, ECB resistance could be enhanced. Maize plants genetically transformed by using a gene(s) from Bacillus thuringiensis are effective in controlling the ECB throughout the life of the plant. As transgenic cultivars are developed and released, it will be necessary to have comparative, unbiased evaluations of performance from public institutions.
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