Faculty Publications

Reduced Levels of Membrane-Bound Alkaline Phosphatase Are Common to Lepidopteran Strains Resistant to Cry Toxins from Bacillus thuringiensis

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First published in PLOS ONE, v6 n3 published by PLOS. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0017606

Document Type

Article

Publication Version

Published Version

Keywords

Larvae, Toxins, Insects, Cadherins, Biomarkers, Health care, Phosphatases, Crops

Journal/Book/Conference Title

PLOS One

Volume

6

Issue

3

Abstract

Development of insect resistance is one of the main concerns with the use of transgenic crops expressing Cry toxins from the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis. Identification of biomarkers would assist in the development of sensitive DNA-based methods to monitor evolution of resistance to Bt toxins in natural populations. We report on the proteomic and genomic detection of reduced levels of midgut membrane-bound alkaline phosphatase (mALP) as a common feature in strains of Cry-resistant Heliothis virescens, Helicoverpa armigera and Spodoptera frugiperda when compared to susceptible larvae. Reduced levels of H. virescens mALP protein (HvmALP) were detected by two dimensional differential in-gel electrophoresis (2D-DIGE) analysis in Cry-resistant compared to susceptible larvae, further supported by alkaline phosphatase activity assays and Western blotting. Through quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) we demonstrate that the reduction in HvmALP protein levels in resistant larvae are the result of reduced transcript amounts. Similar reductions in ALP activity and mALP transcript levels were also detected for a Cry1Ac-resistant strain of H. armigera and field-derived strains of S. frugiperda resistant to Cry1Fa. Considering the unique resistance and cross-resistance phenotypes of the insect strains used in this work, our data suggest that reduced mALP expression should be targeted for development of effective biomarkers for resistance to Cry toxins in lepidopteran pests.

Department

Department of Biology

Original Publication Date

3-1-2011

Object Description

1 PDF File

DOI of published version

10.1371/journal.pone.0017606

Repository

UNI ScholarWorks, Rod Library, University of Northern Iowa

Copyright

©2011 The Author(s)

Language

en

File Format

application/pdf

Link to Full Text
Published Version

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