Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

2012 Minutes of the Annual Meeting of the Multi-State Regional Research Committee NC-205 Ecology and Management of European Corn Borer and Other Lepidopteran Pests of Corn As recorded by Tom Hunt (chair). Lexington, Kentucky January 23-24, 2012 The Lexington Regency Hyatt 401 West High Street, Lexington, Kentucky, USA 40507 Tel: +1 800 233 1234 Monday, January 23, 2012 Meeting began at 8:00 AM. Local Arrangement Announcements Jen White indicated the registration fee for NC205 was $75, and the NC205/NCCC46 joint meeting would be $25. Tom Hunt indicated we may have an opportunity to meet with the International Working Group on Ostrinia and Other Corn Pests (IWGO) in April of 2014. Tom Sappington is involved with IWGO local arrangements and will look into the logistics. Administrative Advisor Report Steve Pueppke reported that Hatch funding was flat and we will just have to see what the default mandatory cut to the budget will be January 2013. Rick Meyer (NC205 USDA Administrative Advisor) retired and no news on a new USDA Administrative Advisor for the committee. A mid-term review of the committee will occur in 2013, so an impact statement is due by December 15, 2012. Time and Place and Nominating Committees Time and Place: Charles Mason and Rick Hellmich. Nominating Committee: Dave Andow. Recap of Activities and Influence Tom Sappington indicated the IRM landscape project he presented last year was received with enthusiasm, but there was no available funding. Fangneng Huang traveled to China and met with farmers about Bt cotton. John Tooker reported that with low populations of corn borer and other Lepidoptera in Pennsylvania, farmers are considering planting more non-Bt corn to save on seed cost. Bill Hutchison reported a response to the Greenpeace article on WBC expansion was published and news releases were released across Europe. Andy Michel reported a general decline in Lepidoptera in Ohio and a similar farmer response as in Pennsylvania, that is, a trend to reduce Bt acres. Until now, Bt acres have been increasing. Western bean cutworm has become a significant issue in seed production and in dry bean production. Charles Mason reports growers are becoming very concerned about marmorated stink bug. With respect to transgenic registration/regulation, he and Art Schaafsma note the success of the Canada coalition and suggest we consider using some of their process for future transgenic transgenic/IRM regulation. NCR 327 Progress Charles Mason noted the difficulties of incorporating rapid change in the document and suggested we publish online an 8-pg companion (already written) to the more extensive NC327 document. Administrative changes at the Iowa State University publishing office have delayed the hard copy publishing process. Invited Presentations Silvana Paula-Moraes gave a presentation on her western bean cutworm IPM research at the University of Nebraska. Discussion ensued on western bean cutworm and mycotoxins, possible IRM (particularly in Canada), and how a suite of lepidopteran ear-feeding pests are now becoming more important. Tom Hunt gave Pat Porters short presentation on fall armyworm injury to corn ears in Texas. Jing Sun (Jessie) gave a presentation on her research on the effect of geography on gene flow of E and Z strain European corn borer. State Reports and Discussion, by Objective Research, extension, and outreach reports were presented by state representatives to NC-205. Discussion ranged over a variety of NC-205 objective-related topics. 5:00 - Adjourn for Monday, January 23, 2012. Tuesday, January 24, 2012 Meeting began at 8:00 AM. Continuation of State Reports and Discussion Research, extension, and outreach reports were presented by state representatives to NC-205. Discussion ranged over a variety of NC-205 objective-related topics. General Discussion Discussion ensued concerning the corn rootworm resistance to Cry3Bb1, the delays in reporting, the scientific definitions/protocols with respect to resistance, the costs of resistance, and our role in the issue. Dave Andow proposed pursuing a pilot project with additional meetings of NC205/NCCC46. the project would explore better communication between farmers and the private sector (concerning problem fields), determining a reasonable definition of resistance, and what could be done (e.g. needed research projects). Pat Porter led a discussion of ear feeding pests, particularly with respect to resultant ear molds. It was suggested we modify the projects objective to strengthen ear-feeding insect pests, but it was decided we have enough justification in the current project and objectives to pursue this line of research without modification. A common NC205 ear mold protocol was suggested, and Art Schaafsma agreed to lead the effort. Members agreed to contact their corn pathologists to enlist their participation. Return to Committee Business Time and Place committee report: A motion was made to suggest new Orleans, LA as the 2013 location for the NC-205 annual meeting, held in the last full week of January 2013. The motion was seconded and approved by NC-205. They will forward that suggestion to the NCCC-46 Committee. If accepted, Fangneng Huang will be local arrangements. NC205 will be held January 23-24 following NCCC46. 12:00 Noon Adjourn 2012 NC-205 Annual Meeting.

It is likely that the synchrony of oviposition activity triggered by migratory flight in beet weborm is a common mechanism in other migratory insect species that promotes outbreak populations. The method for measuring this novel parameter (period of first oviposition) is an important new tool for other scientists studying migratory insects.

MSU Field Crops Entomology Web site includes the following bulletins as pdfs: 15 on western bean cutworm, 1 on armyworms, 2 on corn transgenics. A Twitter feed is available - @AphidQueen and MSU Field Crops Entomology newsletters are distributed via an email list, the Fast Fonz Facts. The list includes approximately 300 agribusiness, commodity, grower, and extension contacts. Western bean cutworm spray recommendations have been made this way since 2009.

Clemson outreach programs included presentations at field days for corn growers and at agent training sessions. Demonstration plots of Bt hybrids and non-Bt isolines at different planting dates were shown at the Pee Dee REC and Edisto REC field days. Publications included the corn insect management sections of the 2011 Clemson Extension Pest Management Handbook and Corn Production Guide, with print and online editions.

In response to low refuge compliance and increased monitoring by industry, Texas Extension Entomologists developed a news release on refuge compliance. This was distributed regionally by Agricultural Communications. Extension Specialists also developed a slide show for use at county extension meetings and featured the refuge compliance issue in their regional newsletters. Our online corn IPM video series was viewed viewed 13,783 times in 2011.

Recommendations on experimental design for early-tier laboratory studies used in risk assessments to evaluate potential adverse impacts of arthropod-resistant genetically engineered (GE) plants on non-target arthropods (NTAs) were developed.

Spatial analyses revealed a barrier to gene flow between Pennsylvania and the other sampled locations, along with an overall pattern of higher genetic divergence among locations in the eastern portion of the distribution compared to the western locations.

Results suggest that O. nubilalis exhibits substantial gene flow over long distances and that the lack of genetic differentiation between populations across hundreds of kilometers is not simply due to migration-drift disequilibrium arising from a recent range expansion.

Research indicates that ~13% of O. nubilalis adults disperse a net distance > 12 km per generation from their natal source.

Transgenic expression of Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) crystalline (Cry) toxins in crop plant tissues results in reduced insect feeding damage, but sustainability of this agricultural practice is threatened by resistance traits within target insect populations. Research indicates that gene regulatory pathways influence insecticide resistance traits. These findings are important in that gene-gene interactions are shown to be important in the manifestation of Bt resistance traits.

Transposable elements (TEs) can affect the structure of genomes through their acquisition and transposition of novel DNA sequences. The preferential integration of Lep1 Helitrons in proximity to gene coding regions results in the creation of genetic novelty that is shown to impact gene structure and function through the introduction of novel exon sequence (exon shuffling). These findings are important in the understanding the structural requirements of genomic DNA sequences that are acquired and transposed by Helitron-like TEs.

An O. nubilalis Z chromosome linkage map provides new tools for isolating quantitative trait loci (QTL) involved in sex-linked traits that drive speciation and it exposes genome rearrangements as a possible mechanism for differential gene regulation in Lepidoptera.

The results of the 6-year study suggest that there appears to be a high risk for development of Cry1Ab resistance in D. saccharalis if Cry1Ab maize continues to be widely used in the U.S. mid-south region.

Transgenic corn hybrids that express toxins from Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) are highly effective against the European corn borer, Ostrinia nubilalis (Hübner), and the closely related Asian corn borer, Ostrinia furnacalis (Guenée). Results indicate that both of the Ostrinia corn borer species are similar in sensitivity to the Cry1Aa, Cry1Ab, Cry1Ac, Cry1Ba and Cry1F toxins, thus suggesting shared toxin receptors and mechanisms of toxicity for the two species.

F2 screening results suggest that the resistance allele frequency in D. saccharalis to the three pyramided Bt maize technologies is low in the mid-southern region of the United States, which should meet the rare resistance assumption of the currently used IRM strategy for Bt maize.

When laboratory results were compared to field temperatures and observed distributions of H. zea in the contiguous United States, the laboratory results corroborated what is currently perceived to be the northern overwintering limit of H. zea; approximately the 40th parallel. Moreover, our research showed that areas north of this limit are lethal to overwintering pupae not because of low temperature extremes, but rather the length of time spent at near-zero temperatures.

Yield loss from fall armyworm is significant and results from both direct damage and indirect damage caused by fungi. Yield loss to indirect damage exceeded that to direct damage (1.16:1). The amount of indirect damage seems to be not closely correlated with the amount of direct damage, and this will make it difficult to construct an economic threshold.

Work on European corn borer male mating has implications for sexual selection theory and for the evolution of resistance to Bt corn.

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