Effects of Bacillus thuringiensis delta-endotoxins on the pea aphid (Acyrthosiphon pisum).

Four Bacillus thuringiensis delta-endotoxins, Cry3A, Cry4Aa, Cry11Aa, and Cyt1Aa, were found to exhibit low to moderate toxicity on the pea aphid, Acyrthosiphon pisum, in terms both of mortality and growth rate. Cry1Ab was essentially nontoxic except at high rates. To demonstrate these effects, we had to use exhaustive buffer-based controls.

Polycalin (chlorophyllid A binding protein): a novel, very large fluorescent lipocalin from the midgut of the domestic silkworm Bombyx mori L.

We studied a protein from the midgut of the silkworm Bombyx mori characterized by its ability to bind the prosthetic group of chlorophyll, that confers fluorescent properties to this protein. Several techniques, 2D electrophoresis purification, MS-MS and Maldi-TOF peptide sequencing, RT-PCR and nucleotide sequencing were used to obtain the nucleotide sequence and the deduced amino acid sequence. The coding sequence was compared to the gene sequence to define the number and size of introns and exons.

The phytopathogen Dickeya dadantii (Erwinia chrysanthemi 3937) is a pathogen of the pea aphid.

Dickeya dadantii (Erwinia chrysanthemi) is a phytopathogenic bacterium causing soft rot diseases on many crops. The sequencing of its genome identified four genes encoding homologues of the Cyt family of insecticidal toxins from Bacillus thuringiensis, which are not present in the close relative Pectobacterium carotovorum subsp. atrosepticum.

Biosynthesis and cocoon-export of a recombinant globular protein in transgenic silkworms.

A gene construct was made by fusing the coding sequence of the red fluorescent protein (DsRed) to the exon 2 of the fibrohexamerin gene (fhx), that encodes a subunit of fibroin, the major silk protein of the silkworm Bombyx mori. The fusion gene was inserted into a piggyBac vector to establish a series of transgenic lines. The expression of the transgene was monitored during the course of larval life and was found restricted to the posterior silk gland cells as the endogenous fhx gene, in all the selected transgenic lines.

Asthma and allergic rhinitis in Quebec children.

Background: The Health and Social Survey of Quebec Children and Youth, conducted on representative samples of children nine, 13 and 16 years of age, provided data on the prevalence and determinants of asthma and allergic rhinitis in Quebec.

Objectives: To determine the prevalence of asthma and allergic rhinitis among children in the province of Quebec and to identify the determinants of these pathologies.

Methods: Three groups of more than 1100 children aged nine, 13 and 16 years were recruited.

Artificial parthenogenesis and control of voltinism to manage transgenic populations in Bombyx mori.

In order to improve the management of transformed populations in a routine application of transgenesis technology in Bombyx mori, we modified its mode of reproduction and its voltinism. On one hand, after a stable integration of the gene of interest by transgenesis, it is preferable to maintain this gene in an identical genomic context through successive generations. This can be obtained by artificial parthenogenetic reproduction (ameiotic parthenogenesis) giving isogenic females identical to their transformed mother.