18.09.2012 | permalink
Bollgard III stacks the Cry1Ac and Cry2Ab present in Bollgard II with the Vip3A protein, discovered by Syngenta – reportedly in milk soured in a research lab fridge – and licenced to Monsanto. When Cry1Ac was released, there was about 1:1,000,000 chance it would be eaten by a heliothis with a background resistance to the protein. With Cry2Ab, the odds shortened to 1:100, but the two proteins work in concert in Bollgard II. Now Australian scientists have found the odds of background heliothis resistance to Vip3A is 2:100 or 3:100 – ”and once they are resistant, they are highly resistant”, Mr Parkes [chairman of the Transgenic and Insecticide Management Strategies Committee] said.