Hardy Cotton-Munching Pests Are Latest Blow to GM Crops

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Science 19, March 2010: Vol. 327. no. 5972, p. 1439

News of the Week – India: Hardy Cotton-Munching Pests Are Latest Blow to GM Crops

By Pallava Bagla

Monsanto has revealed that a common insect pest has developed resistance to its flagship genetically modified (GM) product in India. The agricultural biotechnology leader says it “detected unusual survival” of pink bollworms that fed on cotton containing the Cry1Ac gene from the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis, which codes for a protein that’s toxic to many insect pests. In a statement to Science, Monsanto claims that the finding from western India “is the first case of field-relevant resistance to Cry1Ac products, anywhere in the world.”