A photo from open sources
German scientists brought potatoes, which is real biological weapons against colorado beetles. Transgenic vegetable destroys only potato leaf beetles without harming others living things.
Ralph Bock, enlisting the support of his colleagues from Potsdam Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology, inventively approached to potato pest control. Scientists have made the plant did not produce toxins usual for it, but special ribonucleic acid fragments causing colorado cells bugs block some important genes.
The technique proposed by specialists is based on the so-called RNA interference. Thanks to this process, plant cells given the opportunity to destroy a foreign ribonucleic acid. A double-stranded RNA molecule, entering the cytoplasm, cut by a special enzyme into small short interfering RNAs. A special RNA-protein complex picks up these “scraps” and leads to the destruction of all ribonucleic acid in the cell, containing such a sequence.
German scientists recently decided to embed double-stranded RNA viruses in potato cells. The genes of the virus are encrypted the sequence of the matrix ribonucleic acid of the pest, with which synthesizes any important insect for life protein. Once in the leaf beetle cells, the virus starts RNA interference, which causes the pest to destroy own messenger RNA, depriving yourself of the right protein.
Colony of Colorado beetles living in a reservoir with leaves modified potato died in its entirety in just five days. According to Ralph Bock, a similar crop protection technique has significant advantages over traditional plant treatment pesticides. And most importantly – it is safe for a person who will then usefully use potatoes grown with such protection.
Plant Viruses
