Vic: Boffins battle destructive crop plant moth

AAP General News (Australia)
08-09-2006
Vic: Boffins battle destructive crop plant moth

MELBOURNE, Aug 9 AAP - Australian scientists spearheading the fight against the world's
worst agricultural pest say the first step is to get to know their enemy - intimately.

So intimately, in fact, that the key to beating the helicoverpa amigera moth - or cotton
bollworm - could lie in the moth's genome sequence, say experts from the Melbourne-based
Bio 21 Institute.

Associate professor Phil Batterham said a mere $10 million investment is all it would
take for agricultural biotechnologists to unravel the genetic make-up of the moth, which
infests more than 100 species or crop plants around the world.

"You wouldn't normally go to war against such an enemy without knowing where he's vulnerable,
what his defences are, and who our allies are," said Prof Batterham, who presented bollworm
research at this week's Agricultural Biotechnology International Conference in Melbourne.

"But that's what we do in fighting this pest - much of the intelligence we need is
contained in the genome sequence."

Biotechnologists say the genome could be screened to determine what genes make the
bollworm resistant to pesticides, and where the pest is most vulnerable to attack.

The genetic data could also be used to understand the bollworm population and track
its movements in order to better plan an effective attack.

The Bio 21 Institute team, which has identified the genetic basis of resistance to
some insecticides, has carried out research in India, China and Pakistan aimed at practical
measures to reduce insecticide use against the bollworm.

A program involving more than 1,000 field workers in India has resulted in the use
of insecticides being halved and boosting crop yields by 11 per cent, which in turn has
led to a 75 per cent increase in profitability.

"We had all the gumboot experience of fighting the bollworm in the field," Bio 21 team
member Dr Derek Russell said, "but not the laboratory back-up we needed, the edge that
biotechnology can give us".

AAP sjm/dk/jnb/sd

KEYWORD: BOLLWORM

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