Abstract
A major goal of plant genetic engineering is the introduction of agronomically desirable phenotypic traits into crop plants in situations where conventional breeding methods have been unsuccessful. One such target is enhanced resistance to insect pests which, in view of the estimated production losses world-wide and the heavy costs of protective treatments, is very important. We report here that a gene encoding a cowpea trypsin inhibitor, which has been shown to give some measure of field resistance to insect pests1, confers, when transferred to tobacco, enhanced resistance to this species' own herbivorous insect pests.
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Hilder, V., Gatehouse, A., Sheerman, S. et al. A novel mechanism of insect resistance engineered into tobacco. Nature 330, 160–163 (1987). https://doi.org/10.1038/330160a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/330160a0
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