Transgenic plants expressing the AalT/GNA fusion protein show increased resistance and toxicity to both chewing and sucking pests

The adoption of pest-resistant transgenic plants to reduce yield losses and de- crease pesticide use has been successful. To achieve the goal of controlling both chewing and sucking pests in a given transgenic plant, we generated transgenic tobacco, Arabidopsis, and rice plants expressing the fusion protein, AalT/GNA, in which an insecticidal scor- pion venom neurotoxin （Androctonus australis toxin, AalT） is fused to snowdrop lectin （Galanthus nivalis agglutinin, GNA）. Compared with transgenic tobacco and Arabidop- sis plants expressing AaIT or GNA, transgenic plants expressing AalT/GNA exhibited increased resistance and toxicity to one chewing pest, the cotton bollworm, Helicoverpa armigera. Transgenic tobacco and rice plants expressing AalT/GNA showed increased resistance and toxicity to two sucking pests, the whitefly, Bemisia tabaci, and the rice brown planthopper, Nilaparvata lugens, respectively. Moreover, in the field, transgenic rice plants expressing AalT/GNA exhibited a significant improvement in grain yield when infested with N. lugens. This study shows that expressing the AalT/GNA fusion protein in transgenic plants can be a useful approach for controlling pests, particularly sucking pests which are not susceptible to the toxin in Bt crops.