Electronic Journal of Biotechnology versión On-line ISSN
0717-3458 Electron. J. Biotechnol. v.3 n.2 Valparaíso ago. 2000
Prospects for using transgenic resistance to insects in crop
improvement Hari C. Sharma* Kiran K. Sharma * Corresponding
author Integrated pest management has historically placed great
hopes on host plant resistance. However, conventional host-plant
resistance to insects involves quantitative traits at several
loci. As a result, the progress has been slow and difficult to
achieve. With the advent of genetic transformation techniques,
it has become possible to clone and insert genes into the crop
plants to confer resistance to insect pests. Resistance to
insects has been demonstrated in transgenic plants expressing
genes for d-endotoxins from Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt),
protease inhibitors, enzymes and plant lectins. Most of the
plant derived genes produce chronic rather than toxic effects
and some insect pests are not sensitive to some of these
factors. The potential of plant derived genes