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Current trends in Bt crops and their fate on associated microbial community dynamics: a review

  • Special Issue: Cell Biology in Agricultural and Food Science
  • Published:
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Abstract

Cry protein expressing insect-resistant trait is mostly deployed to control major devastating pests and minimize reliance on the conventional pesticides. However, the ethical and environmental issues are the major constraints in their acceptance, and consequently, the cultivation of genetically modified (GM) crops has invited intense debate. Since root exudates of Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) crops harbor the insecticidal protein, there is a growing concern about the release and accumulation of soil-adsorbed Cry proteins and their impact on non-target microorganisms and soil microbial processes. This review pertains to reports from the laboratory studies and field trials to assess the Bt toxin proteins in soil microbes and the processes determining the soil quality in conjunction with the existing hypothesis and molecular approaches to elucidate the risk posed by the GM crops. Ecological perturbations hinder the risk aspect of soil microbiota in response to GM crops. Therefore, extensive research based on in vivo and interpretation of results using high-throughput techniques such as NGS on risk assessment are imperative to evaluate the impact of Bt crops to resolve the controversy related to their commercialization. But more studies are needed on the risk associated with stacked traits. Such studies would strengthen our knowledge about the plant-microbe interactions.

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Acknowledgments

One of the authors (AKS) was supported by CSIR-New Delhi, Government of India, in the form of JRF and SRF research fellowship.

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  1. Department of Botany, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, 221005, India

    Amit Kishore Singh & Suresh Kumar Dubey

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  1. Amit Kishore Singh
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Correspondence to Suresh Kumar Dubey.

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Singh, A.K., Dubey, S.K. Current trends in Bt crops and their fate on associated microbial community dynamics: a review. Protoplasma 253, 663–681 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00709-015-0903-5

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