研究昆虫控制的文章Athenix and Monsanto Announce Collaboration on Research for Insect ControlRESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK， NC and ST LOUIS， June 20 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Athenix C and Monsanto Company today announced they have entered into a three-year research collaboration for insect control on a key class of insects that affects a number of Monsanto's major crops of Financial terms of the agreement were not "We are pleased to work with the market leader in crop genetics to bring our technical capabilities to commercialization，" said Mike Koziel， chief executive officer for A "Working with Monsanto to discover novel genes for controlling insect pests increases options for farmers and allows Athenix to demonstrate the power of its integrated discovery platforms for new biotech traits，" said Nick Duck， vice president of research at A Athenix will apply its expertise in microbial screening and genomics to facilitate gene discovery intended to help protect crops such as cotton， soybeans and corn against a common class of insects known as H Hemipteran insects include Lygus， a pest of cotton， and stinkbug， a pest of "This collaboration will work to offer an essential benefit to our farmer customers by providing insect protection in crops such as corn， cotton and soybeans against the piercing and sucking Insect tolerant crops allow growers to spray less pesticide， making their operations more efficient and at the same time stewarding the environment，" said Robert T Fraley， PD， Monsanto executive vice president and chief technology "We're excited to collaborate with Athenix to help broaden grower's options for insect " About Athenix: Athenix is a leading biotechnology company that develops novel products and technologies for agricultural and industrial applications， including biofuels and Athenix has established an outstanding intellectual property portfolio and market access ability around enhanced plants， microbes， genes， enzymes， and processes with emphasis on two major markets: 1) novel agricultural traits for growers such as insect resistance， nematode resistance， herbicide tolerance， and their use for the crop production industry; and 2) the discovery of genes and proteins for use in the sustainable chemical industry with a focus on biofuels like ethanol and other natural Biological control of locusts New weapons for old enemiesDuring the 1988 desert locust plague， swarms crossed the Atlantic from Mauritania to the Caribbean， flying 5 000 kilometres in 10 Scientists were stumped because migrating swarms normally come down to rest every But locusts can’t swim， so how could it be? It turned out that the swarms were coming down at sea – on any ships they could find， but also in the water The first ones in all drowned but their corpses made rafts for the other ones to rest Since the dawn of agriculture more than 10 000 years ago mankind has had to deal with a resourceful and fearless enemy， Schistocerca gregaria， the desert Normally loners， every so often these natives of the deserts from West Africa to India turn into vast， voracious swarms that leave hunger and poverty behind them wherever they Throughout history， farmers and governments have made attempts to repel the bands and swarms of locusts by collecting insects， creating noise， making smoke and burying and burning the But all of this had little With swarms sometimes extending for hundreds of kilometres， and containing billions of individuals， they conquered by sheer force of Health concernsIt has long puzzled humans where these animals came from and where they Only in the mid-20th century was it realized that the light brown solitary desert-dwelling insect was the same species as the red and yellow locusts of the Only when its biology was understood and chemical pesticides and aerial spraying became available a few decades ago， could efforts be made to control the But large-scale pesticide use also raised real concerns for human health and the On the seventh-floor Emergency Centre for Locust Operations (ECLO) at FAO Headquarters in Rome， Keith Cressman， FAO's locust forecaster， checks current environmental conditions and locust population data from the three computer screens on his The last big locust upsurge ended early in 2005 and the current alert level is green or The experts at FAO’s ECLO are readying to fight the next round in the age-old battle against locusts – wherever and whenever that may “The next time，” says Cressman， “we’ll fight with new tools” New bio-control agents Recent advances in biological control research， coupled with improved surveillance and intelligence， could make a big difference when the next round in the battle is Such products could make it possible to sharply reduce the amount of chemical pesticides One promising avenue is research currently under way at the International Centre for Insect Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE) in N An ICIPE team headed by a Zanzibar-born chemical ecologist， Ahmed Hassanali， has identified and synthesized a specific locust pheromone， or chemical signal， that can be used against young locusts with devastating Phenylacetonitrile， or PAN for short， normally governs swarming behaviour in adult males who also use it to warn other males to leave them in peace while they But， Hassanali found it has startlingly different results on juvenile wingless locusts， known as Hopper bandsJust as adult locusts form swarms， hoppers will， given the right conditions， stop behaving as individuals and line up in marauding bands up to 5 kilometres They are only slightly less voracious than adults， who eat their own weight of food every In three separate field trials – the most recent in Sudan last year – Hassanali’s team showed that even minute doses of PAN could stop hopper bands dead in their tracks and make them break PAN caused the insects to resume solitary Confused and disoriented， some lost their appetite altogether， while others turned cannibal and ate one Any survivors were easy prey for What makes PAN particularly attractive is that the dose needed is only a fraction – typically less than 10 millilitres per hectare – of the quantities of chemical or biological This translates into substantially lower costs – 50 cents per hectare as opposed to US$12 for chemical pesticides and $15-20 for other bio-control That is clearly a major consideration in the countries in the front line – many of them among the world’s Green Muscle A different， but also highly effective biological approach is Green Muscle ®， a bio-pesticide developed by the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture’s biological control centre in Cotonou， Benin， and manufactured in South A Green Muscle ® contains spores of the naturally occurring fungus Metarhizium anisopliae acridum， which germinate on the skin of locusts and penetrate through their The fungus then destroys the locust's tissues from the This is definitely not good news for locusts， but the fungus has no effect on other life A product similar to Green Muscle ® is already successfully used in Australia， but the latter's introduction in Africa and Asia is being slowed by several These include a need for further large-scale trials， official approval of the product in several countries， and a relatively short shelf-life in its normal ready-to-spray liquid One drawback is that it takes days to kill the It is also relatively expensive and large-scale production would need to be A solution would be to store the product in powder form and dilute it just before Hassanali’s team has also shown that， if used in combination with a small amount of PAN， only a quarter of the normal dose of Green Muscle ® is Insect Growth RegulatorsAlso being readied for the modern locust fighter’s armoury is a class of products known as Insect Growth Regulators， or IGRs， which influence the ability of hoppers to moult and grow They have no direct toxic effects on IGRs are effective for several weeks after application and can be used in so-called barrier In this method only narrow swathes of the product are applied， perpendicular to the direction of the marching hopper Only 10 percent of the amount used in blanket treatment is After marching over one or two barriers the hoppers absorb enough product to die while As with PAN and Green Muscle ®， however， IGRs need to be aimed at locusts at an early stage in their lives， before they take to the That， in turn， requires an advanced level of surveillance and intelligence-gathering to make sure that any locust concentrations are nipped in the eLocust2Although back at ECLO Keith Cressman has satellites， computers and mathematical models at his disposal， the weak link in the chain has been the time it takes to get good information from the The mobile ground teams whose job it is to keep tabs on locust populations have to work in some of the world’s remotest， hottest and sometimes (for environmental and security reasons) most hostile A week or more might go by before a report from， say， the central Sahara， reached Cressman’s By that time the locusts – “They don’t need visas，” he says – would quite likely have moved to another country or continent This will soon change Field teams are now being issued with special hand-held devices to record vital locust and environmental data and relay them back to their own headquarters and on to Rome in real Developed by the French Space Agency CNES， the eLocust2 device is able to bounce the information off communications satellites and have the data arrive in the National Locust Control Centre in the affected country a few minutes later， from where they are passed on to Cressman for In case of unusually heavy hopper concentrations， immediate action can be taken to make sure that the locusts never grow old enough to Back to the fieldWriting in Science magazine， locust expert Martin Enserink gave the following graphic description of a locust population gone out of control:“On a beautiful November morning (in Morocco) it’s clear， even from afar， that something’s terribly wrong with the trees around this tiny They are covered with a pinkish-red gloss， as if their leaves were changing "As you get closer， the hue becomes a wriggling mass; a giant cap of insects on every tree， devouring the tiny Get closer still and you’ll hear a soft drizzle: the steady stream of locust droppings falling to the ” Such nightmare visions， and locust plagues with them， may one day be a thing of the
