-Caveat Lector-

Scientists Create GM Killer

Moth To Control Pests - Trials Begin

By James Meek
Science Correspondent
The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk
3-5-1


Scientists are preparing to start trials of the world's first
genetically modified insect, an unnatural born killer moth that
will fly over cotton fields, passing a deadly gene on to its
pestilent kin as an alternative to pesticide.

Although the GM moth will be released in Arizona, the technology
used to create the killer gene has been developed by a British
team led by Luke Alphey, of Oxford University. The scientists
believe that the chances of the killer gene spreading beyond the
species it is intended to harm, the pink bollworm, is very small,
and would do no harm if it did.

But the US department of agriculture still has to give consent
for the first part of the trial, which would involve a tightly
controlled release of moths with another gene inserted to track
any possible cross-species transfer.

Scientists need to target the bollworm larvae, which feed on
cotton plants, before developing into moths. The idea is to take
insect eggs in the lab and insert into their DNA a gene from a
fruit fly which would normally damage their metabolism so badly
that they would die.

In the lab, however, the larvae survive, because they are dosed
with an antidote to the effects of the killer gene. They will
grow into adult moths, which are naturally immune to the effects
of the gene, and will then be released over the cotton fields in
huge numbers.

Unaware that by mating they are both creating and assassinating
the next generation, the GM moths will mate with wild moths and
each other. The female moths will lay their eggs as normal. But
their offspring will have inherited the killer gene. In the wild,
the larvae will find no antidote and will die.

In the initial trial, which could take place next year, 3,600
moths will be given a jellyfish gene that glows under special
light instead of the killer gene. This will show what happens to
GM insects when they encounter their wild counterparts and other
species.


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