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The potato tuberworm [Phthorimaea operculella (Zeller)] is one of the most destructive insect pests to potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) in tropical and subtropical regions, and it has recently become established in the Pacific Northwest of the United States. Combining natural resistance mechanisms with Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) cry genes could be a potential solution to improve potato resistance to tuberworm. We have expressed Bt cry1Ac in two potato lines: Spunta, a susceptible potato line, and ND5873-15, a moderately resistant line with high foliar glycoalkaloids derived from Solanum chacoense. Putative transgenic lines of Spunta and ND5873-15 were developed using a vector construct pSPUD15 with the codon-modified Bt cry1Ac driven by the 35S CaMV promoter. Integration of Bt cry1Ac in Spunta and ND5873-15 transgenic lines was determined by PCR and Southern analysis. Protein expression in the transgenic lines (0–580 ng·g⁻¹) was determined by ELISA. Plants expressing Bt cry1Ac were effective in controlling potato tuberworm first-instar larvae in the detached-leaf bioassays (up to 97% mortality) and in tuber bioassays (up to 99% mortality). Based on the assays conducted, the Bt cry1Ac Spunta lines were similar to the Bt cry1Ac ND5873-15 lines for potato tuberworm mortality. Constitutively expressed Bt cry1Ac would be a useful gene to use for host plant resistance to potato tuberworm.

Late blight of potato (Solanum tuberosum L.), incited by Phytophthora infestans (Mont.) de Bary, is a devastating disease affecting tuber yield and storage. Recent work has isolated a resistance gene, RB, from the wild species Solanum bulbocastanum Dun. Earlier work in Toluca, Mexico, observed significant levels of field resistance under intense disease pressure in a somatic hybrid containing RB. In this study, five transgenic RB lines were recovered from the late blight susceptible line MSE149-5Y, from the Michigan State University (MSU) potato breeding program. Transgenic lines were molecularly characterized for the RB transgene, RB transcript, and insertion number of the kanamycin resistance gene NPTII. Transgenic lines and the parent line were evaluated for resistance in field and laboratory tests. Molecular characterization alone did not predict which lines were resistant. Three of the RB transformed MSE149-5Y lines showed increased resistance under field conditions at MSU and increased resistance in detached leaf evaluations using multiple isolates individually (US-1, US-1.7, US-8, US-10, and US-14). Transfer of RB into late blight susceptible and resistant lines could provide increased protection to potato late blight. The use of the RB gene for transformation in this way creates a partially cisgenic event in potato because the gene's native promoter and terminator are used. This type of transformation provides a chance to generate greater public acceptance of engineered approaches to trait introgression in food crops.

The codon-modified cryV-Bt gene (cryV-Bt) from Bacillus thuringiensis subsp. kurstaki Berliner, which is specifically toxic to Lepidoptera and Coleoptera insects, and a potato virus Y^o coat protein gene (PVY^ocp), in which the aphid transmission site was inactivated, were cotransformed into potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) `Spunta' via Agrobacterium tumefaciens Conn. We demonstrated the integration and expression of both genes by molecular analysis and bioassays. All cryV-Bt/PVY<sup>o</sup>cp-transgenic lines were more resistant to potato tuber moth (Phthorimaea operculella Zeller) and PVY<sup>o</sup> infection than nontransgenic `Spunta'. Four cryV-Bt/PVY^ocp transgenic lines were equal in potato tuber moth mortality to a cryV-Bt transgenic line, but of these four only two lines were equivalent in PVY^o titer levels to a PVY^ocp-transgenic line. We identified two transgenic lines, 6a-3 and 6a-5, which showed greater resistance to potato tuber moth and PVY^o than the other cryV-Bt/PVY^ocp transgenic lines. This study indicated that multiple genes, conferring insect pest resistance and virus resistance, could be engineered into and expressed simultaneously in a potato cultivar.

The transgenic potato ‘SpuntaG2’ (Solanum tuberosum), which is resistant to potato tuber moth (Phthorimaea operculella), was subjected to protein safety evaluations including protein equivalency tests for the Cry1Ia1 protein from ‘SpuntaG2’ and bacterially produced Cry1Ia1, toxicity and allergenicity evaluations of Cry1Ia1 protein, and compositional equivalency of ‘SpuntaG2’ compared with non-transgenic ‘Spunta’. Western blot analysis and biological activity assays showed molecular and functional equivalency between ‘SpuntaG2’-derived Cry1Ia1 protein and bacteria-derived Cry1Ia1 protein. Comparison of the Cry1Ia1 amino acid sequence to known amino acid sequences revealed no significant homology to known toxins or known allergens. Acute toxicity studies using rodents were used to calculate an acceptable daily intake (ADI) value of 20 mg·kg⁻¹ body weight per day. The ADI value was then used to calculate a margin of exposure (MOE) of 2,222,222, which is more than 22,000 times greater than the commonly used target MOE of 100. Digestibility and thermostability assays determined that Cry1Ia1 was fully digested within 30 s of exposure to pepsin and inactive after 3 to 4 minutes at 100 °C, indicating that it would not be a potential allergen. Compositional analyses revealed no difference between ‘SpuntaG2’ and non-transgenic ‘Spunta’. These results strongly indicate that the Cry1Ia protein and the transgenic potato ‘SpuntaG2’ is not a human health risk.

Potato tuber moth (Phthorimaea operculella) is a serious pest of potatoes in tropical and subtropical regions of the world, including South Africa. The cry1Ia1 gene (from Bacillus thuringiensis) under the control of the 35S cauliflower mosaic virus promoter was transformed into the potato (Solanum tuberosum) cultivar Spunta to develop a cultivar with resistance to potato tuber moth for release in South Africa. Two transformation events, ‘SpuntaG2’ and ‘SpuntaG3’, were selected and subjected to extensive molecular analyses as required by the regulatory agencies of South Africa. Southern hybridization experiments indicated that ‘SpuntaG2’ and ‘SpuntaG3’ had one and three copies of the cry1Ia1 gene, respectively, and that the gene insertion was stable through multiple clonal generations. Furthermore, the sequence of the cry1Ia1 gene in ‘SpuntaG2’ was compared with the known sequence of the cry1Ia1 gene and found to be identical. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification using primers for plasmid “backbone” genes demonstrated that ‘SpuntaG2’ contained no backbone plasmid genes, whereas ‘SpuntaG3’ contained several backbone plasmid genes. Therefore, further analyses were limited to ‘SpuntaG2’, and event-specific primers were developed for this cultivar. Analysis of the left and right border regions in ‘SpuntaG2’ demonstrated that the insertion of the cry1Ia1 gene did not disrupt any functional genes nor did it create new open reading frames that encoded proteins with a significant match to the non-redundant sequence database queried by the BLASTP program. Enzyme-linked immunoabsorbent assays (ELISA) tests indicate that the cry1Ia1 gene was expressed at a mean concentration of 2.24 μg·g⁻¹ fresh weight in leaf tissue and 0.12 μg·g⁻¹ fresh weight in tubers. This study demonstrates the extensive molecular characterization that is necessary to apply for deregulation of a genetically modified crop and these data have been used in a regulatory package for the general release of ‘SpuntaG2’.

‘SpuntaG2’ is a transgenic potato (Solanum tuberosum) cultivar that contains the cry1Ia1 gene for resistance to potato tuber moth (Phthorimaea operculella), which is a serious pest of potato in many parts of the world. Previous studies have characterized ‘SpuntaG2’ at the molecular level and evaluated it for safety as a human food source. The objective here was to determine the efficacy of ‘SpuntaG2’ against the potato tuber moth in the field and in storage and to evaluate its agronomic performance. Efficacy trials at seven South African locations over 5 years indicated that ‘SpuntaG2’ gave complete control of potato tuber moth in the field and storage. The agronomic performance (tuber size and yield) of ‘SpuntaG2’ was not statistically different from ‘Spunta’ or was better than ‘Spunta’ at all locations/years with two exceptions. Three years of trials in Michigan further support these conclusions. Evaluations done during the 2006–07 South African season showed that ‘SpuntaG2’ did not differ from non-transgenic ‘Spunta’ for the following traits: maturity, growth habit, eye morphology, tuber size distribution, tuber shape, skin and flesh color, growth cracks, internal defects, specific gravity, chip color, cooking quality, disease resistance, and pollen fertility. Based on the results of these trials, it was concluded that ‘SpuntaG2’ provides the agronomic performance of ‘Spunta’ with the added benefit of resistance to potato tuber moth.