The Insecticidal Bacterial Toxins in Modern Agriculture Edited by Juan Ferré and Baltasar Escriche Printed Edition of the Special Issue Published in Toxins www.mdpi.com/journal/toxins The Insecticidal Bacterial Toxins in Modern Agriculture Special Issue Editor Juan Ferré Baltasar Escriche MDPI • Basel • Beijing • Wuhan • Barcelona • Belgrade Special Issue Editors Juan Ferré Baltasar Escriche University of Valencia University of Valencia Spain Spain Editorial Office MDPI AG St. Alban‐Anlage 66 Basel, Switzerland This edition is a reprint of the Special Issue published online in the open access journal Toxins (ISSN 2072‐6651) from 2016–2017 (available at: http://www.mdpi.com/journal/toxins/special_issues/Toxins_Modern_Agriculture). For citation purposes, cite each article independently as indicated on the article page online and as indicated below: Author 1; Author 2. Article title. Journal Name Year, Article number, page range. First Edition 2018 ISBN 978‐3‐03842‐662‐2 (Pbk) ISBN 978‐3‐03842‐663‐9 (PDF) Cover photo courtesy of Juan Ferré and Baltasar Escriche Articles in this volume are Open Access and distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution license (CC BY), which allows users to download, copy and build upon published articles even for commercial purposes, as long as the author and publisher are properly credited, which ensures maximum dissemination and a wider impact of our publications. The book taken as a whole is © 2018 MDPI, Basel, Switzerland, distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons license CC BY‐NC‐ND (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by‐nc‐nd/4.0/). Table of Contents About the Special Issue Editors ................................................................................................................... v Juan Ferré and Baltasar Escriche Editorial for Special Issue: The Insecticidal Bacterial Toxins in Modern Agriculture Reprinted from: Toxins 2017, 9(12), 396; doi: 10.3390/toxins9120396 ..................................................... 1 Zahia Djenane, Farida Nateche, Meriam Amziane, Joaquín Gomis‐Cebolla, Fairouz El‐Aichar, Hassiba Khorf and Juan Ferré Assessment of the Antimicrobial Activity and the Entomocidal Potential of Bacillus thuringiensis Isolates from Algeria Reprinted from: Toxins 2017, 9(4), 139; doi: 10.3390/toxins9040139 ....................................................... 5 Rooma Adalat, Faiza Saleem, Neil Crickmore, Shagufta Naz and Abdul Rauf Shakoori In Vivo Crystallization of Three‐Domain Cry Toxins Reprinted from: Toxins 2017, 9(3), 80; doi: 10.3390/toxins9030080 ......................................................... 24 Yolanda Bel, Núria Banyuls, Maissa Chakroun, Baltasar Escriche and Juan Ferré Insights into the Structure of the Vip3Aa Insecticidal Protein by Protease Digestion Analysis Reprinted from: Toxins 2017, 9(4), 131; doi: 10.3390/toxins9040131 ....................................................... 37 Yueqin Wang, Jing Yang, Yudong Quan, Zhenying Wang, Wanzhi Cai and Kanglai He Characterization of Asian Corn Borer Resistance to Bt Toxin Cry1Ie Reprinted from: Toxins 2017, 9(6), 186; doi:10.3390/toxins9060186 ........................................................ 50 Yiyun Wei, Shuwen Wu, Yihua Yang and Yidong Wu Baseline Susceptibility of Field Populations of Helicoverpa armigera to Bacillus thuringiensis Vip3Aa Toxin and Lack of Cross‐Resistance between Vip3Aa and Cry Toxins Reprinted from: Toxins 2017, 9(4), 127; doi: 10.3390/toxins9040127 ....................................................... 61 Aubrey R. Paolino and Aaron J. Gassmann Assessment of Inheritance and Fitness Costs Associated with Field‐Evolved Resistance to Cry3Bb1 Maize by Western Corn Rootworm Reprinted from: Toxins 2017, 9(5), 159; doi: 10.3390/toxins9050159 ....................................................... 68 Andrew J. Bowling, Heather E. Pence, Huarong Li, Sek Yee Tan, Steven L. Evans and Kenneth E. Narva Histopathological Effects of Bt and TcdA Insecticidal Proteins on the Midgut Epithelium of Western Corn Rootworm Larvae (Diabrotica virgifera virgifera) Reprinted from: Toxins 2017, 9(5), 156; doi: 10.3390/toxins9050156 ....................................................... 87 Haichuan Wang, Seong‐il Eyun, Kanika Arora, Sek Yee Tan, Premchand Gandra, Etsuko Moriyama, Chitvan Khajuria, Jessica Jurzenski, Huarong Li, Maia Donahue, Ken Narva and Blair Siegfried Patterns of Gene Expression in Western Corn Rootworm (Diabrotica virgifera virgifera) Neonates, Challenged with Cry34Ab1, Cry35Ab1 and Cry34/35Ab1, Based on Next‐Generation Sequencing Reprinted from: Toxins 2017, 9(4), 124; doi: 10.3390/toxins9040124 ....................................................... 101 iii Yannick Pauchet, Anne Bretschneider, Sylvie Augustin and David G. Heckel A P‐Glycoprotein Is Linked to Resistance to the Bacillus thuringiensis Cry3Aa Toxin in a Leaf Beetle Reprinted from: Toxins 2016, 8(12), 362; doi: 10.3390/toxins8120362 ..................................................... 114 Yonghui Li, Yanmin Liu, Xinming Yin, Jörg Romeis, Xinyuan Song, Xiuping Chen, Lili Geng, Yufa Peng and Yunhe Li Consumption of Bt Maize Pollen Containing Cry1Ie Does Not Negatively Affect Propylea japonica (Thunberg) (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) Reprinted from: Toxins 2017, 9(3), 108; doi: 10.3390/toxins9030108 ....................................................... 126 Oxana Skoková Habuštová, Zdeňka Svobodová, Ľudovít Cagáň and František Sehnal Use of Carabids for the Post‐Market Environmental Monitoring of Genetically Modified Crops Reprinted from: Toxins 2017, 9(4), 121; doi: 10.3390/toxins9040121 ....................................................... 136 iv About the Special Issue Editors Juan Ferré, Prof., received his Ph.D. in Chemistry by the University of Valencia (UV), Spain, with the work “Study of the pteridines and quinolines form Drosophila melanogaster eyes”, which he carried out in both the Department of Genetics of the UV and the Biology Division of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge (Tennessee, USA). He did his postdoctoral studies in the Department of Reproductive Genetics of the Magee Womens Hospital (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA). He became Professor of Genetics in 2000, and served as Head of the Department of Genetics of the UV for 7 years. He is currently Director of the Interdisciplinary Research Structure in Biotechnology and Biomedicine of the UV (ERI Biotecmed). His current research interests, starting in 1990, are (i) to understand the biochemical and genetic bases of insect resistance to Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) toxins, (ii) to study the mode of action of Bt toxins, and (iii) to find novel Bt strains and insecticidal protein genes for the development of Bt‐based insecticides to control agricultural insect pests Baltasar Escriche, PhD Biology, Associated Professor of Genetics at the University of Valencia (Spain) and, currently serves as Head of the Department of Genetics and as Director of the Master in Research in Genetics, and Molecular and Cellular Biology, of the Faculty of Biology. He studied Biology at U. of Valencia and completed his postdoctoral work at the University of Limburg (Belgium) funded by a European Union grant. He obtained a tenure track at the U. of Valencia funded with the prestigious “Ramon y Cajal” Spanish program in 2002. He has worked on different aspects of Bacillus thuringiensis toxins, production and application, starting with his Ph.D. in 1990, because of its relevance as an environmentally friendly pesticide. He is especially interested in technology transfer to developing countries. v toxins Editorial Editorial for Special Issue: The Insecticidal Bacterial Toxins in Modern Agriculture Juan Ferré * and Baltasar Escriche * ERI de Biotecnología y Biomedicina (BIOTECMED), Department of Genetics, University of Valencia, Burjassot, 46100 Valencia, Spain * Correspondences: [email protected] (J.F.); [email protected] (B.E.); Tel.: +34-96-3544-506 (J.F.) Academic Editor: Michel R. Popoff Received: 29 November 2017; Accepted: 4 December 2017; Published: 9 December 2017 Agriculture has suffered enormous changes since the first human attempts to domesticate plants to obtain productive varieties which could become a constant source of food. Many developments have shaped current agricultural systems, especially those that led to extensive industrial monocultures. Concurrently with those, there are numerous other types of small scale agricultural systems with an important social and economic impact. The development of ecosystems with scarce plant varieties has favored the presence of specialized phytophagous that have evolved and adapted to plant species used in agriculture. Pest species share some biological traits, such as short generation cycles and large offsprings. Improvements in agriculture have led to a high production efficiency and the control of pests through different strategies. Modern agriculture seeks to evolve to more environmentally-friendly systems with little environmental impact and accessible to developing countries. The strategy of pest control based on the use of specific pathogenic microorganisms was already developed at the beginning of the XX century, though its extended commercial use was not achieved until relatively recently, with public awareness of the problems caused by the use of chemical synthetic insecticides. One of the most successful agents, because of its environmental friendly properties, is the pesticides based on the Gram-positive bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis. This bacterium