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Impact assessment of Bt maize expressing the Cry1Ab and Cry2Ab protein simultaneously on non-target arthropods

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Abstract

Transgenic maize expressing the Cry1Ab and Cry2Ab protein simultaneously from Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt-maize) has been grown for farm-scale study to investigate its potential impact to non-target arthropod (NTA). The trials were conducted between Bt maize 2A-7 and its parental line (B73-329) in Beijing, China, over 3 years. Richness (C), Shannon index (H), Pielou index (J), Simpson index (D), and Bray-Curtis index were used to evaluate the population dynamics and biodiversity of the dominant arthropods from per 50 plants in crop field. The mainly abundant groups were Aphidoidea, Araneae, Coccinellidae, Anthocoridae, and Thripidae which represented about 90% of the total number of NTA. Although the abundance of NTA varied from year to year, there is no significant difference between Bt maize and non-Bt maize field. Fluctuations were found at individual sample dates, but the trend of these descriptors remained consistent. Further analysis showed the biodiversity indexes of the dominant arthropods C, H, J, D, and Bray-Curtis dissimilarity between Bt maize producing Cry1Ab and Cry2Ab toxin simultaneously and its parental line had no significant difference except for some sampling dates. These results suggested that Bt maize is compatible with the NTAs and provides further evidence of the ecological impact of genetically modified maize.

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Funding

This research was funded by the Special Fund for Transgenic Crop Research of China (2016ZX08011-003).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Entomology and MOA Key Lab of Pest Monitoring and Green Management, China Agricultural University, Beijing, China

    Yue Yin, Yudi Xu, Kaili Cao, Zifang Qin, Xinxin Zhao & Wangpeng Shi

  2. Department of Agriculture Science, China Agricultural University, Beijing, China

    Xuehui Dong

Authors
  1. Yue Yin
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  2. Yudi Xu
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  3. Kaili Cao
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  4. Zifang Qin
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  5. Xinxin Zhao
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  6. Xuehui Dong
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  7. Wangpeng Shi
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Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: YY, WPS, and XHD. Performed the experiments: YY, ZFQ, YDX, KLC, and XXZ. Analyzed the data: YY. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: XHD and WPS. Wrote the paper: YY and WPS.

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Correspondence to Wangpeng Shi.

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Responsible editor: Philippe Garrigues

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Yin, Y., Xu, Y., Cao, K. et al. Impact assessment of Bt maize expressing the Cry1Ab and Cry2Ab protein simultaneously on non-target arthropods. Environ Sci Pollut Res 27, 21552–21559 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-08665-9

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