AUTHOR=Yang Yan , Zhang Bing , Zhou Xiang , Romeis Jörg , Peng Yufa , Li Yunhe 

TITLE=Toxicological and Biochemical Analyses Demonstrate the Absence of Lethal or Sublethal Effects of cry1C- or cry2A-Expressing Bt Rice on the Collembolan Folsomia candida

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Plant Science

VOLUME=9

YEAR=2018

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/plant-science/articles/10.3389/fpls.2018.00131

DOI=10.3389/fpls.2018.00131

ISSN=1664-462X

ABSTRACT=<p>Assessing the potential effects of insect-resistant genetically engineered (GE) plants on collembolans is important because these common soil arthropods may be exposed to insecticidal proteins produced in GE plants by ingestion of plant residues, crop pollen, or root exudates. Laboratory studies were conducted to evaluate the potential effects of two <italic>Bacillus thuringiensis</italic> (<italic>Bt</italic>)-rice lines expressing Cry1C and Cry2A in pollen and leaves and of their non-<italic>Bt</italic> conventional isolines on the fitness of the collembolan <italic>Folsomia candida</italic> and on the activities of its antioxidant-related enzymes, superoxide dismutase and peroxidase, and of its detoxification-related enzymes, glutathione reductase and glutathione <italic>S</italic>-transferase. Survival, development, reproduction, and the intrinsic rate of increase (<italic>r</italic><sub>m</sub>) were not significantly reduced when <italic>F. candida</italic> fed on the <italic>Bt</italic> rice pollen or leaf powder than on the non-<italic>Bt</italic> rice materials; these parameters, however, were significantly reduced when <italic>F. candida</italic> fed on non-<italic>Bt</italic> rice pollen or non-<italic>Bt</italic> leaf-based diets containing the protease inhibitor E-64 at 75 μg/g. The activities of the antioxidant-related and detoxification-related enzymes <italic>in F. candida</italic> were not significantly affected when <italic>F. candida</italic> fed on the <italic>Bt</italic> rice materials, but were significantly increased when <italic>F. candida</italic> fed on the non-<italic>Bt</italic> rice materials containing E-64. The results demonstrate that Cry1C and Cry2A are not toxic to <italic>F. candida</italic>, and also indicate the absence of unintended effects on the collembolan caused by any change in plant tissue nutritional composition due to foreign gene transformation.</p>