Impact of transgenic insect-resistant maize HGK60 with Cry1Ah gene on community components and biodiversity of arthropods in the fields

evenness index of arthropod in fields of transgenic maize are not significantly different from those of the control, which indicates that the planting of transgenic maize with Cry1Ie gene had no significant effect on the structure and diversity of arthropod community in the fields. Habustova et al. [36] had been monitoring the arthropod in the fields of transgenic Bt maize for 3 years in a row in ČESKE´ BUDEˇJOVICE, and it is found that there is no significant differ- ence in biomass and species abundance between the transgenic Bt maize and the control. In addition, an ecological risk assessment of GM soybean also showed that the cultivation of GM soybean had no effects on the arthropod damage [37]. Similarly, Bt cotton and transgenic Cry1Ab rice has no adverse effects on Chrysoperla carnea in terms of development, survival, fecundity, or population dynamics [38] and the development, mummy weight and the number of progeny produced by Copidosoma floridanum [39] and the survival, development time and fecundity of Pardosa pseudoannulata in the laboratory or on predation under field conditions [40]. These studies indicated that some GM crops have no adverse effects on arthropods, which is consistent with our research. However, some scholars believe that the planting of transgenic crops will have a certain impact on the composition and organization of ecological communities. Jiang et al. [41] found that the composite system of transgenic poplar and cotton formed by transgenic cotton and 741 transgenic cotton had some influence on the composi-

tion and structure of insect sub community in the system. Some studies suggested that the planting of transgenic insect-resistant crops significantly reduced the use of insecticides, caused the increase of abundance and diversity of arthropod community in the fields, and then the ecological stability of the planting area was improved [42,43]. Meanwhile some stud- ies showed that the planting of transgenic insect-resistant crops could cause the decrease of the number of natural enemies and the increase of the number of non-target insects in the fields to some extents [44,45]. It is still controversial that whether transgenic crops can affect arthro- pods in the fields. Although this study thought that HGK60 planting has no obvious influence on the composition, diversity indexes, similarity coefficient and relative stability of the Table 3. Comparison of stability of arthropod community in maize fields. Year Growth period Maize treatments Stability index Nn/Np Nd/Np Sn/Sp Sd/Sp 2019 Seeding stage HGK60 1.021±0.141 0.244±0.032 1.133±0.253 0.152±0.104 Z58 0.857±0.033 0.201±0.05 1.182±0.273 0.117±0.015 Bell stage HGK60 0.917±0.018 0.22±0.02 1.112±0.181 0.147±0.045 Z58 0.892±0.076 0.231±0.049 0.993±0.379 0.107±0.041 Heading stage HGK60 1.022±0.048 0.283±0.021 1.086±0.232 0.144±0.019 Z58 0.915±0.12 0.237±0.016 1.122±0.215 0.107±0.047 Full ripe stage HGK60 1.136±0.063 0.26±0.029 1.289±0.288 0.218±0.065 Z58 1.232±0.05 0.276±0.016 1.244±0.11 0.205±0.022 2020 Seeding stage HGK60 0.835±0.072 0.192±0.015 � 1.142±0.258 0.174±0.038

Z58 0.759±0.075 0.159±0.037 1.117±0.373 0.161±0.051 Bell stage HGK60 0.821±0.092 0.201±0.03 1.024±0.206 0.172±0.033 Z58 0.899±0.059 0.174±0.014 1.02±0.054 0.139±0.021 Heading stage HGK60 0.927±0.058 0.192±0.012 1.016±0.292 0.186±0.017 Z58 0.931±0.014 0.201±0.025 1.091±0.144 0.184±0.061 Full ripe stage HGK60 1.172±0.045 0.274±0.032 1.047±0.167 0.237±0.039 Z58 1.078±0.04 0.245±0.018 1.025±0.12 0.226±0.036 Nn、Np、Nd、Sn、Sp and Sd in the table refer to the number of individuals of natural group, the number of individuals of herbivorous group, the number of individuals of neutral group, the number of species of natural group, the number of species of herbivorous group, the number of species of neutral group. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0269459.t003 PLOS ONE Impact of transgenic insect-resistant maize HGK60 with Cry1Ah gene PLOS ONE | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0269459 June 3, 2022 9 / 13