Sir

The News item about the “Dispute over insect resistance to crops” (Nature 388, 817; 1997) focuses attention on the critical issue of pest adaptation to crops genetically engineered to express insecticidal proteins from the soil bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt). The article appropriately conveys the message that the knowledge required to design effective, scientifically based resistance management plans is not at present available.

However, the article's emphasis on conflict between academic scientists and industry is somewhat misleading, because it is widely recognized that the urgently needed progress will come only with cooperation, rather than confrontation. I am characterized in the article as “one of UCS's [Union of Concerned Scientists’] scientific advisers”.

In fact, like other academic scientists, I have expressed my views in publications available to all concerned parties (see Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 94, 3488-3490; 1997) and have provided, upon request, specific information to industry and to the Environmental Protection Agency, as well as to organizations such as UCS. Like other academic scientists, I have concentrated primarily on generating and disseminating knowledge about pest resistance that is essential for improving management strategies. As we struggle together to create management plans based on the scant data available today, the necessity of committing public and private resources to improving understanding of resistance becomes ever clearer.