Ladybird beetles (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) are abundant predatory species in many agroecosystems, are valued for their biological pest control functions, and have been recommended as test species for studies supporting the assessment of non-target effects of insect-resistant Bt crops. Although insecticidal Bt proteins are known to be highly specific against target pests, some recent laboratory studies reported putative toxic effects of Bt proteins on ladybird species. While such studies have been criticised because of methodological shortcomings or inconsistencies, they cast doubt on the insecticidal spectrum of activity of some Bt proteins. Performing a systematic review that synthesises all existing evidence on this controversial topic may help to resolve the remaining scientific uncertainties. The review question to be addressed by the systematic review is the following: Are ladybird beetles (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) affected by Bt proteins expressed in genetically modified insect-resistant crops? The systematic review will focus on studies performed under controlled environmental conditions. An extensive literature search will be conducted to identify the articles relevant to the review question. A wide range of electronic bibliographic databases, the internet search engine Google Scholar, and websites of specialized organizations will be searched. Citation searching, reference list-checking and searching of key journals will also be performed. The relevance of the identified articles will be assessed against a set of pre-defined eligibility criteria, following a two-step approach. In the first step, title and abstract (or summary) will be screened, whilst in the second step the full text of all remaining articles will be assessed by two members of the review team. All relevant studies will be subjected to an appraisal of external (generalisability) and internal (risk of bias) validity. Data from the selected studies will be extracted and synthesised in a narrative report. If a sufficient number of datasets generated with comparable experimental setup is available, statistical meta-analyses will be conducted on a range of comparisons and including sensitivity analyses.

中文翻译：

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转基因抗虫作物中表达的Bt蛋白会影响瓢虫（鞘翅目：球虫）吗？系统的审查协议

瓢虫甲虫（鞘翅目：瓢虫科）是许多农业生态系统中丰富的捕食性物种，因其具有生物防治害虫的功能而受到重视，并已被推荐作为测试物种用于支持评估抗虫Bt作物的非目标效应。尽管已知杀虫Bt蛋白对目标害虫具有高度特异性，但最近的一些实验室研究报告了Bt蛋白对瓢虫物种的推定毒性作用。尽管由于方法上的缺陷或不一致而对此类研究提出了批评，但它们对某些Bt蛋白的杀虫活性谱带提出了怀疑。进行系统的综述以总结关于该有争议主题的所有现有证据，可能有助于解决剩余的科学不确定性。系统评价要解决的评价问题如下：瓢虫（甲虫：瓢虫）受转基因抗虫作物中表达的Bt蛋白影响吗？系统评价将集中于在受控环境条件下进行的研究。将进行广泛的文献检索，以确定与评论问题相关的文章。范围广泛的电子书目数据库，互联网搜索引擎Google Scholar和专业组织的网站都将被搜索。还将进行引文搜索，参考书目检查和关键期刊的搜索。遵循两步方法，将根据一组预定义的资格标准来评估已识别商品的相关性。在第一步中 标题和摘要（或摘要）将被筛选，而第二步中，其余所有文章的全文将由审核小组的两名成员进行评估。所有相关研究都将接受外部（一般性）和内部（偏倚风险）有效性的评估。来自选定研究的数据将在叙述性报告中提取和综合。如果有足够数量的通过可比较的实验设置生成的数据集，则将对一系列比较进行统计荟萃分析，包括敏感性分析。来自选定研究的数据将在叙述性报告中提取和综合。如果有足够数量的通过可比较的实验设置生成的数据集，则将对一系列比较进行统计荟萃分析，包括敏感性分析。来自选定研究的数据将在叙述性报告中提取和综合。如果有足够数量的通过可比较的实验设置生成的数据集，则将对一系列比较进行统计荟萃分析，包括敏感性分析。