Sek Yee Tan, Murugesan Rangasamy, Haichuan Wang, Ana María Vélez, James Hasler, David McCaskill, Tao Xu, Hong Chen, Jessica Jurzenski, Matthew Kelker, Xiaoping Xu, Kenneth Narva, Blair D Siegfried
The western corn rootworm (WCR), Diabrotica virgifera virgifera LeConte, is an important maize pest throughout most of the U.S. Corn Belt. Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) insecticidal proteins including modified Cry3Aa and Cry34/35Ab1 have been expressed in transgenic maize to protect against WCR feeding damage. To date, there is limited information regarding the WCR midgut target sites for these proteins. In this study, we examined whether a cadherin-like gene from Diabrotica virgifera virgifera (DvvCad; GenBank accession # EF531715) associated with WCR larval midgut tissue is necessary for Cry3Aa or Cry34/35Ab1 toxicity...
August 2016: Insect Biochemistry and Molecular Biology