Patent US5177308A – Insecticidal Toxins in Plants

Abstract

Transgenic plants have been created which express an insect-specific toxin from a scorpion. The chimeric inheritable trait produced conditions of toxicity in the plant cells of toxicity to certain insects upon ingestion of plant tissues. The inheritable trait has also been cross-bred to plants transgenic to the Bacillus thuringiensis delta-endotoxin to produce plants having two independent insect-specific toxin traits. Insect feeding trails revealed additive toxic effects. A generalized approach for developing other insecticidal toxins as candidates for insertion into transgenic plants is also presented.