Laboratory tests
These tests were conducted with tomato fruits of
transgenic and non-transgenic plants. The tests were
conducted inside a Petri dish (16 cm diameter3.5 cm
high) provided with a lid. For each test, tomato fruits
were freshly excised from the plants and brought to the
laboratory in labeled containers. Each tomato fruit was
placed separately inside a Petri dish and was artificially
infested with 5 second—instar H. armigera larvae.
Damage was assessed 5 days after infestation on a
rating scale of0–9, with 0 indicating no damage to 9
indicating extensive damage to the fruit. Larval survival
was also recorded. For the transgenic Bt plants, 61
tomato fruits were tested. For every five Bt tomatoes, a
non-transgenic tomato fruit was also tested as explained
above