Transgenic Oil Palm with Stably Integrated CpTI Gene Confers Resistance to Bagworm Larvae

Abstract

Insect predation of plants contributes towards reduction of crop yield worldwide. In oil palm alone, loss of yield due to insect attack is obvious. The most important insect pests of oil palm are the bagworms, particularly Metisa plana Walker. Bagworms caused severe defoliation of oil palm leaves as they fed on them. Synthetic insecticides have been applied to address losses due bagworm, but with unsatisfactory results. In addition most of the insecticide applied were wasted and it could also lead to toxicity to non-target insects. Thus efforts are in progress to produce transgenic plants resistant to insect. The use of transgenic plants offers several advantages over conventional insecticides. Earlier work on cowpea protease trypsin inhibitor (CpTI) gene on other crops showed that it has the potential to confer resistance against common insect pests especially members of the Lepidoptera, Coleoptera and Orthoptera. And most importantly, it exhibits low or no toxicity to mammals (Pusztai et al., 1992). When ingested, the larval gut protease was unable to digest proteins consumed. This eventually led to larvae death due to starvation (Gatehouse and Boulter, 1983). The CpTI gene was successfully transferred into oil palm giving rise to transgenic plants with stably intergrated gene. This report further highlights the effectiveness of CpTI gene against the common insect pest of oil palm, Metisa plana Walker.