Scorpions’ Venom Gene Added to Natural Insecticide
Researchers increased a natural insecticide’s ability to kill crop-eating caterpillars by making it produce a scorpion venom toxin.
The natural insecticide is an insect virus. Scientists at UC Davis made the virus more effective against caterpillars by inserting a scorpion gene so the virus produced the deadly toxin.
In lab tests, the modified virus acted much more quickly than the natural virus in making caterpillar larvae stop eating, become paralyzed and die, entomology graduate student Bill McCutchen said during the American Chemical Society’s annual meeting.
The ACS awarded McCutchen its 1992 Young Scientist Award for his work.
Viruses and other biological methods to fight insects “are desirable alternatives to chemical pesticides because they don’t pose the environmental and health risks normally associated with chemical residues,” said Bruce D. Hammock, a professor of entomology and environmental toxicology.
“But until now, these viruses haven’t been competitive with chemical insecticides because the viruses act much more slowly,” he added.
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