Mating in many butterflies and moths is controlled by 'pheromones' (these are essentially, species-specific chemical smells that usually enable the males to find the female). Some moths (notably, the Cotton bollworm) have larvae that decimate crops. There is now a 'Sexy plants' project (https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/jun/07/sexy-plants-on-track-to-replace-harmful-pesticides-to-protect-crops) that aims to use genetic modification (GM) to introduce genes that manufacture the 'pheromones' into Tobacco plants. Initially, the intention appears to be to extract the odours to employ them in chemical traps for the moths, reducing the need for spraying with insecticides that blanket kill all insect (and some other) species. Eventually (it involves a number of legal hurdles), the GM plants might be grown alongside the protected crop to distract the mate-hungry insects. Although Tobacco plants have been successfully used in other GM studies, it might be easier and faster to produce the pheromone by inserting the gene into a cultured bacterium (as is used to manufacture human growth hormone for medical applications)?
No comments:
Post a Comment