Season-long expression of Cry1Ac and Cry2Ab proteins in Bollgard II cotton in Australia

Bollgard II cotton has been grown commercially in Australia since 2003 for control of the primary target species Helicoverpa armigera (Hubner) and Helicoverpa punctigera (Wallengren) Larvae of both species have been reported to survive at low frequencies on Bollgard II with larvae >8 mm recorded in between 7 and 18% of the area planted to Bollgard II cotton between 2005/06 and 2007/08. F-1 and F-2 tests have shown that this is not due to the presence of resistance genes in the surviving larvae. To understand if fluctuations in the expression of the Cry proteins in Bollgard II allow some larvae to survive, plant tissue samples were taken from five Bollgard II cultivars throughout the growing season within fields and from different farms within a production region between 2007 and 2010. The data indicate that the expression of both Cry proteins is similar to the known resistance-monitoring diagnostic concentrations and relatively uniform between fields within a farm and between farms within a region, with less than one-third of the tests at this level of variation being significant. However, there were intra-seasonal changes in expression of both Cry proteins and differences in expression between plant structures and between cultivars for both Cry proteins. Further work is needed to establish if this variation in Cry protein content in Bollgard II cotton affects the control of Helicoverpa spp. in the field or whether plant-physiological and pest-behavioural factors underlie the occasional occurrence of Helicoverpa larval survival on Bollgard II cotton. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.