Making moths avoid apples? Gene-edited bio-pesticides in development

William Walker of the Agricultural Research Service laboratory in Wapato, Washington, has three projects underway that aim to use genetic manipulation to thwart one of the Northwest apple industry’s most loathed pests.

One of Walker’s experiments uses CRISPR gene editing to alter a female moth’s sense of “smell,” so she does not like apples as a place to lay eggs. Another aims to create a biopesticide that interrupts the genetic code translation and shuts down a moth larva’s ability to manufacture a protein critical for survival. This approach is called RNA interference, and it’s already been commercialized for other pests. The third involves altering the genes of existing virus-based pesticides to make them more effective.

The CRISPR project has reached the end of its three-year research commission funding, but Walker says he has enough results to warrant continuing with his ARS budget.

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If the ideas work and reach commercialization — and if they are cost-effective — some of Walker’s techniques may someday replace tried-and-true pheromone disruption, especially the protein silencing spray, said [Teah] Smith, who also serves on the research commission.

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