GmOruga - Conferring Resistance to Leaf Chewing Insects
- Detailed Technology Description
- This technologycontains a gene, a promoter and modified plants that exhibitresistance to leaf-chewing insects. Itaims the development of crops that are resistant to leaf-chewing insects, suchas moth larvae, reducing the need for insecticides. Insect damage isresponsible for 14% of all potential crop production, and approximatelytwo-thirds of all known insect pests are leaf-eating beetles or caterpillars. Unfortunately, in the last 50 years, despitea more than 10-fold increase in the amount and toxicity of syntheticinsecticides, the percentage of yield lost to insects has nearly doubled. Plant resistance is an effective mechanism tocontrol insect pests, and the planting of resistant cultivars has becomecrucial in reducing production costs and the impact of insecticide residues inthe food chain and environment. Plantbreeding efforts have been hampered by the lack of functional understanding of thegenetic basis of resistance to most insects, and by the diverse ways in whichinsects cause damage to plants. Additionally, there has historically been an inverse relationshipbetween insect resistance traits and agronomic performance, as is the case with– for example - insect resistance insoybean.
- *Abstract
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Technology Description
A gene whichprovides resistance to leaf chewing insects has been identified and isolatedfrom soybean. Also identified andisolated is an inducible promoter sequence which expresses the insectresistance gene upon feeding by the insect. Resistance to leaf chewing insects is generated by two differentmechanisms: antibiosis, where insectsfeeding on resistant plants are smaller than insects feeding on susceptibleplants; and antixenosis, where insects choose not to feed on resistant plants,preferring susceptible plants. Thisinvention generated transgenic soybean plants, which confer insect resistancethrough both antibiosis and antixenosis.
References and Intellectual Property
· Patent pending. Published PCT WO2014028426
· Ortega MA, All JN, Boerma HR, Parrott WA:Pyramids of QTLs enhance host-plant resistance and Bt-mediated resistance toleaf-chewing insects in soybean. Theor Appl Genet. 2016 Apr;129(4):703-715
- Country/Region
- USA
