On Fri, 08 Aug 2003 05:48:09 GMT, "Moosh:}"
wrote:
On Fri, 8 Aug 2003 06:18:46 +0100, Oz
posted:

Someone wrote:
They fed resistant larvae of the diamondback moth - an increasingly
troublesome pest in the southern US and in the tropics - on normal
cabbage leaves and ones that had been treated with a Bt toxin. The larvae
eating the treated leaves grew much faster and bigger - with a 56 per
cent higher growth rate.
..
Plants attacked by pests will elevate their toxin levels as a response.
If the untreated plants were under attack (or their neighbours were)
then they would increase their toxin level.
..
It amazed me that such a tiny amount of one protein could produce such
growth differences. Your explanation of growth inhibition from a
predated crop certainly fits.

It doesn't fit or explain anything at all, since the same cabbage leaf
material was fed in all treatment groups in the experiment. The
researchers grew a single cabbage crop, cut discs from its leaves, and
fed the discs to different groups of larvae kept in petri dishes, with
or without Bt toxin fortification.