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Unlocking genome of world's worst insect pest
June 18, 2008Scientists from CSIRO and the University of Melbourne in Australia, and the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, are on the brink of a discovery which will facilitate the development of new, safe, more sustainable ways of controlling the world's worst agricultural insect pest - the moth, Helicoverpa armigera.
The Australian Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research, Senator the Hon Kim Carr, said - at the BIO 2008 International Convention in San Diego, California - that the team was expected to sequence the moth's genome in about four months.
"This will allow the collaborating scientists and a worldwide consortium of specialists to work on new ways of controlling this pest," Senator Carr said.
According to CSIRO's Group Executive for Agribusiness, Dr Joanne Daly, these include: the molecular basis of resistance to chemical and Bt insecticides and population genetics related to the refuge strategies in place to help prevent Helicoverpa from developing resistance to Bt transgenic cottons.
"This moth is resistant to nearly every class of chemical pesticide and threatens the long-term viability of transgenic crops which are reliant on the biological pesticide, Bt," Dr Daly said.
"The sequencing of the genome will greatly facilitate this research by improving the power, cost effectiveness and insights from the genetic work on this species and its American cousin H. zea," University of Melbourne Associate Professor Philip Batterham said.
Senator Carr said that finding the moth's Achilles heel was critically important to agriculture worldwide.
"The moth causes $225 million of damage a year in Australia - $5 billion globally - to crops such as cotton, legumes and vegetables," he said.
"Our scientists are already world leaders in research on the genetics and ecology of Helicoverpa and its close relatives.
"This project - led by CSIRO Entomology's Dr John Oakeshott and Associate Professor Batterham - will build on Australia's role. Working together with our partners at Germany's Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology and France's National Institute for Agricultural Research, the project will help establish us as leaders in organising major insect genome projects."
The project is another example of what can be achieved through collaboration between scientists and their institutions both in Australia and overseas, he said.
CSIRO
According to CSIRO's Group Executive for Agribusiness, Dr Joanne Daly, these include: the molecular basis of resistance to chemical and Bt insecticides and population genetics related to the refuge strategies in place to help prevent Helicoverpa from developing resistance to Bt transgenic cottons.
"This moth is resistant to nearly every class of chemical pesticide and threatens the long-term viability of transgenic crops which are reliant on the biological pesticide, Bt," Dr Daly said.
"The sequencing of the genome will greatly facilitate this research by improving the power, cost effectiveness and insights from the genetic work on this species and its American cousin H. zea," University of Melbourne Associate Professor Philip Batterham said.
Senator Carr said that finding the moth's Achilles heel was critically important to agriculture worldwide.
"The moth causes $225 million of damage a year in Australia - $5 billion globally - to crops such as cotton, legumes and vegetables," he said.
"Our scientists are already world leaders in research on the genetics and ecology of Helicoverpa and its close relatives.
"This project - led by CSIRO Entomology's Dr John Oakeshott and Associate Professor Batterham - will build on Australia's role. Working together with our partners at Germany's Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology and France's National Institute for Agricultural Research, the project will help establish us as leaders in organising major insect genome projects."
The project is another example of what can be achieved through collaboration between scientists and their institutions both in Australia and overseas, he said.
CSIRO
Genome Current Events and Genome News RSSTime of day matters to thirsty trees, U of T researcher discovers
The time of day matters to forest trees dealing with drought, according to a new paper produced by a research team led by Professor Malcolm Campbell, University of Toronto Scarborough's vice-principal for research and colleagues in the department of cell and systems biology at the St. George campus.
Genetic analysis helps dissect molecular basis of cardiovascular disease
Using highly precise measurements of plasma lipoprotein concentrations determined by nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR), researchers led by Daniel Chasman at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston, MA, the Framingham Heart Study in Framingham, and the PROCARDIS consortium in Stockholm, Sweden and Oxford, England performed genetic association analysis across the whole genome among 17,296 women of European ancestry from the Women's Genome Health Study.
Gene mismatch influences success of bone marrow transplants
A commonly inherited gene deletion can increase the likelihood of immune complications following bone marrow transplantation, an international team of researchers reports in the November 22 advance online issue of Nature Genetics.
Scientists at UA, collaborating institutions decode maize genome
Scientists from the University of Arizona led by Arizona Genomics Institute director Rod A. Wing and from collaborating institutions have deciphered the complete genetic code of the maize plant for the first time.
Ancestry attracts, but love is blind
People preferentially marry those with similar ancestry, but their decisions are not necessarily based on hair, eye or skin colour.
WPI Researchers Take Aim at Hard-to-Treat Fungal Infections
A team of researchers at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) Life Sciences and Bioengineering Center at Gateway Park has developed a new model system to study fungal infections.
Technique finds gene regulatory sites without knowledge of regulators
A new statistical technique developed by researchers at the University of Illinois allows scientists to scan a genome for specific gene-regulatory regions without requiring prior knowledge of the relevant transcription factors.
Causative gene of a rare disorder discovered by sequencing only protein-coding regions of genome
For the first time, scientists have successfully used a method called exome sequencing to quickly discover a previously unknown gene responsible for a mendelian disorder.
New research into the mechanisms of gene regulation
A team led by Penn State's Ross Hardison, T. Ming Chu Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, has taken a large step toward unraveling how regulatory proteins control the production of gene products during development and growth.
Maize cell wall genes identified, giving boost to biofuel research
Purdue University scientists have helped identify and group the genes thought to be responsible for cell wall development in maize, an effort that expands their ability to discover ways to produce the biomass best suited for biofuels production.
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