Skip to main content
ARS Home » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #114656

Title: THE EFFECTS OF PHOTORHABDUS LUMINESCENS TOXIN COMPLEX A ON THE COLORADO POTATO BEETLE, LARVAE, LEPTINOTARSA DECEMLINEATA (COLEOPTERA: CHRYSOMELIDAE).

Author
item Blackburn, Michael - Mike
item Domek, John

Submitted to: National Entomological Society of America Annual Meeting
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 8/1/2000
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: The bacterium Photorhabdus luminescens, an enteric symbiont of Heterorhabditid nematodes, produces a number of high molecular weight insecticidal protein toxins. One of these toxins, Toxin complex a (Tca), has been found to inhibit growth of second instar Colorado potato beetle larvae in a dose dependant manner. Fifty percent inhibition of growth occurred at a Tca concentration of approximately 0.14 parts per million. Second instar larvae fed diet containing Tca for 24 h exhibited pathology of the midgut epithelium which included loss of apical microvilli and blebbing of cytoplasmic vesicles into the gut lumen.