A bacterial protein protects maize (corn) from a major insect pest that has grown resistant to other insecticides.

The larvae of western corn rootworm feed on maize roots, and cause substantial crop losses across North America and Europe. Transgenic 'Bt' maize plants expressing insecticidal proteins from the soil bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis can fend off the pest, but some worms have become resistant to certain Bt proteins. Lu Liu at DuPont Pioneer in Hayward, California, and his colleagues analysed soil samples and identified a small protein made by Pseudomonas chlororaphis that killed rootworm larvae but not other common insects. Maize plants engineered to make this protein suffered little damage from the rootworm, regardless of whether or not the pest was sensitive to Bt proteins.

Science http://doi.org/bqzh (2016)