Biosafety aspects of Cry1Ab protein application

Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) is one of biologically used bacteria which produces special proteins (Parasporal Crystal = Cry). These proteins are host specific and are used widely in pest resistanttransgenic plants such as corn¡ cotton¡ rice and potato. The Cry1Ab is one of the Bt toxins which controls pest groups belonging to Lepidoptera order and have attracted much attention in developing Transgenic plants resistant to this group of pests. Production of transgenic plants is a new technology and like any new technologies may have disadvantage as well. Thos paper provides a comprehensive review of the information and data relevant to the environmental risk assessment of Cry1Ab which is wildly used in Bt plant. In Biosafety assessment of transgenic plants¡ different aspects could be important. In this review article¡ three main characteristics are evaluated separately; i) effect of the Cry1Ab protein on non-target organisms; ii) Establishment and survival of Bt plants expressing the Cry1Ab protein in the environment; and iii) Changes in key components of the plant. Overall¡ based on the available date¡ it could be concluded that Bt plants expressing the Cry1Ab protein do not pose any threats and in some case¡ they have increased biodiversity.