Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

There are no minutes until after the January 2008 meeting.

The committee will continue to address the five major objectives of the project and work toward the targeted outputs, outcomes, and impacts. To date, the project has reached two of three major milestones indicated and the third milestone is near completion. Over the next year we will work toward the 2008 milestones. Short-term Outcomes 1. The committee has been partially responsible for the development and implement of a resistance management strategy for transgenic corn hybrids in the U.S. and the world. 2. The BET program has provided corn growers and seed companies with a tool to assess the economic value to a corn grower at his/her specific geographic location. This tool helps them target the specific planting dates and hybrid maturity groups that will gain the greatest yield advantage through use of the Bt gene(s). 3. Consumers gain through reduce synthetic pesticide exposure, reduced cost of products made from corn and potentially increased energy independence. 4. Farmers and their families gain by a reduction in synthetic pesticide exposure. Outputs 1. Geographic size of European corn borer populations and meta-populations in the central Corn Belt are being characterized though both spatial and temporal estimates of gene flow. The preliminary analyses of microsatellite DNA marker data indicate that uninhibited gene flow among ECB populations in the Corn Belt occurs over something greater than 450 miles. Dispersal of individuals is, on average, many miles per generation, and the geographical dimensions of populations (these must still be calculated) are very large. 2. See list of publications 3. Bt Evaluation Tools Activities 1. Members of NC-205 are currently working on editing the publication NCR-327, European Corn Borer Ecology and Management. Members have been assigned sections to rewrite. Dr. Charles Mason is leading this effort. 2. Members of the committee continue to work on characterizing the genetic structure of European corn borer populations and linkage map. 3. With Dr. Calvins move into an administrative position (Associate Director of Extension) at Penn State University the milestone of the spatial relationship between economic value of Bt corn for ECB and corn rootworm will be modeled may be difficult to complete. He was the lead investigator on this modeling effort. However, other members of the committee have worked on economic analysis models that combine both species. Milestones 1. Bt Evaluation tool (BET) is available on line to evaluate the economic value of Bt corn at any given geographic location in the United States (http://www.btet.psu.edu/). This tool allows the user to identify their state, county and 2 kilometer grid location and then select a maturity class of corn, plant date, infestation level, pest density, planting rate, expected yield, expected level of protection from the technology and corn price and European corn borer generation of interest. From these inputs, they can determine their overall average expect benefit and the probability of a positive new benefit from the technology based on historic climatology. 2. Two papers have been published on the genetics of European corn borer voltinism  Coates et al. (2004) and Kim et al. (2007). Additional information on the genetics of voltinism is currently being completed in Faruque Uz-Zamans PhD Dissertation at Penn State University. He just passed his Dissertation defense on December 21, 2007. 3. The third milestone by 2007, publish a paper on the yield-loss model for southwestern corn borer has yet to be reached. A preliminary model structured similar to the European Corn Borer Bt Evaluation tool (BET) has been built, but not tested or published. 4. An additional milestone not listed is the development of an F2 screen has been used to identify a major gene for resistance to Bt corn in the sugarcane borer in Louisiana. The sugarcane borer is an important pest of corn in Louisiana and Texas.

Andow, D. A. and Claudia Zwahlen. 2006. Assessing environmental risks of transgenic plants. Ecology Letters. 9: 196-214. Reardon, B. J., D. V. Sumerford, and T. W. Sappington. 2006. Dispersal of newly-eclosed European corn borer adults (Lepidoptera: Crambidae) from corn into small-grain aggregation plots. J. Econ. Entomol. 99: 1641-1650. Price, J. L., J. Hyde, and D. D. Calvin. 2006. Insect Resistance Management in Bt corn: An Assessment of community refuge schemes. AgBioForum 9(3): 1 - 10. Reardon, B. J., D. V. Sumerford, and T. W. Sappington. 2006. Impact of trap design, windbreaks, and weather on captures of European corn borer (Lepidoptera: Crambidae) in pheromone-baited traps. J. Econ. Entomol. 99: 2002-2009. Reardon, B. J., and T. W. Sappington. 2007. Effect of age and mating status on adult European corn borer (Lepidoptera: Crambidae) dispersal from small-grain aggregation plots. J. Econ. Entomol. 100: 1116-1123. Magarey, R. D., B. Nietschke, D. M. Borchert, E. M. Jones, and D. D. Calvin. 2007. A developmental database to support insect phenology models. Crop Protection. Hunt, Thomas E., Lawrent L. Buschman, Phillip E. Sloderbeck. 2007. Insecticide Use in Bt- and Non-Bt Field Corn in the Western Corn Belt: As Reported by Crop Consultants in a Mail Survey. American Entomologist. 53: 86-93. Kim, K. S., B. S. Coates, R. L. Hellmich, D. V. Sumerford, and T. W. Sappington. 2007. Isolation and characterization of microsatellite loci from the European corn borer, Ostrinia nubilalis (Hübner) (Insecta: Lepidoptera: Crambidae). Mol. Ecol. Notes (OnlineEarly Articles). doi:10.1111/j.1471-8286.2007.01974.x. (In press.)