Levels of control of Chilo partellus stem borer in segregating tropical Bt maize populations in Kenya
Date
2011-06Author
Mwimali, G Murenga
Githiri, Stephen M
Mugo, Stephen N
Olubayo, Florence M
Type
ArticleLanguage
enMetadata
Show full item recordAbstract
In Kenya, stem borers destroy an estimated 400,000 metric tons, or 13.5%, of farmers' annual maize
harvest costing about US$80 millions. Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) maize controls stem borers without
harming humans, livestock and the environment and was sown to 140m ha-1 globally in 2009. Two
public Bt maize lines of cry1Ab::ubi gene (Event 216 and Event 223) were crossed with two non-Bt
maize inbred lines, CML144 and CML159. The efficacy in the control of Chilo partellus stem borers in
the parents, F1 and F2:3 successive generations were studied in a biosafety level 2 greenhouse. The Btgene
effectively reduced stem borer damage with lower values for number of exit holes, tunneling
length, proportion of stalk tunneled, number of larvae and number of pupae than the non Bt-maize and
the check cultivars. The F1 generations values for all damage parameters studied were comparable to
those for the Bt-maize inbred lines as expected. The F2:3 generations showed a spread of damage
parameters from resistant to susceptible. These results suggest that the Cry1A(b) genes in the study
was inherited following the Mendelian segregation.
Citation
African Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 10(23), pp. 4725-4731, 1 June, 2011Publisher
Department of Plant Science and Crop Protection, University of Nairobi
Description
Journal article