Here is an example of what can be done with old fashioned plant breeding,
which, to me, is still superior to genetic engineering.
----------
From: "ARS News Service"
To: "ARS News List"
Subject: Maysin Corn on Tap To Sour Pest's Appetite?
Date: Tue, Oct 24, 2000, 6:30 AM
STORY LEAD:
Maysin Corn on Tap To Sour Pest's Appetite?
___________________________________________
ARS News Service
Agricultural Research Service, USDA
Jan Suszkiw, (301) 504-1630, jsuszkiw@ars.usda.gov
October 24, 2000
___________________________________________
Corn earworms could soon find themselves biting off more than they can chew.
Agricultural Research Service scientists in Tifton, Ga., have developed four
lines of inbred sweet corn whose silks have a natural compound called maysin
that can kill this caterpillar pest.
Commercial crops of maysin-producing corn--still a few years off--could help
farmers scale back their use of insecticides. In Florida, for example, sweet
corn growers sometimes spray up to 40 times per season to ensure the
unblemished, worm-free ears that consumers require. Nationwide, earworms
cause $100 million in yield losses and increased insecticide costs. And
spraying, while effective, can endanger beneficial insects.
The maysin in the new lines, on the other hand, is a natural defense
restricted to corn silks, where earworms start their feeding, said team
leader Neil Widstrom, with ARS' Crop Genetics and Breeding Research Unit.
Maysin also is only active in the earworm's gut and isn't toxic to humans
and other animals.
In forced-feeding trials, a maysin concentration of less than one third of 1
percent of the silk's total fresh weight was enough to kill 50 percent of
earworms that digested it. In small-scale field trials this past summer,
that sensitivity translated to very little ear damage in the maysin corn,
versus a non-maysin control group that was not treated with insecticides.
Widstrom's team transferred the maysin trait into the sweet corn lines by
crossing them with a southern dent corn. They then back-crossed the lines to
the original sweet corn parent plant whose silks carry the trait. They also
selected plants with tight husks, which forces earworms to chew on the silks
before reaching the kernels.
Widstrom's team is now using a genetic approach called marker-assisted
selection to speed development of high-maysin hybrids. Their work is part
of a cooperative research and development agreement that Novartis Seeds,
Inc., renewed with ARS in August.
ARS is the U.S. Department of Agriculture's chief research agency.
___________________________________________
Scientific contact: Neil Widstrom, ARS Crop Genetics and Breeding Research
Unit, Tifton, Ga., phone (912) 387-2341, fax (912) 387-2321,
nwidstro@tifton.cpes.peachnet.edu.
___________________________________________
This item is one of the news releases and story leads that ARS Information
distributes on weekdays to fax and e-mail subscribers. You can also get the
latest ARS news on the World Wide Web at
www.ars.usda.gov/is/pr/thelatest.htm.
* Feedback and questions to ARS News Service via e-mail: isnv@ars-grin.gov.
* ARS Information Staff, 5601 Sunnyside Ave., Room 1-2251, Beltsville MD
20705-5128, (301) 504- 1617, fax (301) 504-1648.
I wonder if this would also work on earwigs?
Arzeena
-----------------------------
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---------------------------
chew.
> Agricultural Research Service scientists in Tifton, Ga., have developed
four
> lines of inbred sweet corn whose silks have a natural compound called
maysin
> that can kill this caterpillar pest.
> Commercial crops of maysin-producing corn--still a few years off--could
help
> farmers scale back their use of insecticides. In Florida, for example,
sweet
1
to
> the original sweet corn parent plant whose silks carry the trait. They
also
> selected plants with tight husks, which forces earworms to chew on the
silks
the
> latest ARS news on the World Wide Web at
> www.ars.usda.gov/is/pr/thelatest.htm.
> * Feedback and questions to ARS News Service via e-mail:
isnv@ars-grin.gov.
> Here is an example of what can be done with old fashioned plant breeding,
> which, to me, is still superior to genetic engineering.
A very interesting development indeed. Thanks for posting it, Lon.
--Janet
