First evidence emerges of pest resistance to GM crops: scientists

0 Comments | AFP, February, 2008

PARIS (AFP) — Scientists poring over a mass of studies into the response of pests to genetically-modified cotton say they have found the first confirmation that insects have developed resistance to transgenic crops.

University of Arizona entomologists looked at data from six experiments to monitor pests in fields sown with transgenic cotton and corn in Australia, China, Spain and the United States.

They found evidence of genetic mutation among bollworms (Helicoverpa zea) in a dozen cotton fields sown in Mississippi and Arkansas between 2003 and 2006.

But no such evidence was found among five other major pests monitored elsewhere.

The mutation entails a slight change in the bollworm's DNA to help it resist a toxin that the cotton plant exudes thanks...