Associated Press
 By
tinkering with genes, scientists have made tomatoes that stay
fresher longer, crops that are immune to weedkillers and fish
that grow faster. Now, a genetically engineered insect is emerging
from the lab.
The first
field trial of a biotech insect — a pink bollworm moth that
contains a jellyfish gene — is planned for this summer. The
gene gives the moth larvae a fluorescence.
If the experiment
involving a major pest for cotton growers goes as planned, scientists
are ready with their next step: testing a biotech version, called
the "Terminator" by farmers, that is sterile, but sexually
active; it is designed to mate with wild relatives and eliminate
their offspring.
Some 3,600
moths with the jellyfish genes are to be set free under screened
cages in a government-owned cotton field near Phoenix. The next
step would be to add genes that make the moths sterile.
"We're
being very, very careful about what we're doing," said Robert
Staten, an Agriculture Department scientist who will run the field
trial.
The experiment
is being conducted and regulated by department's Animal and Plant
Health Inspection Service because of its authority for controlling
plant pests. Staten expects the agency to grant approval this
spring for the release.
"We're
going to take as conservative an approach as we can and still
move forward," he said.
Some biotech
critics are alarmed while some scientists who support the technology
say the government is not prepared to properly regulate biotech
insects.
Under development,
for example, are disease-preventing mosquitoes that could deliver
vaccines to the people they bite or carry their own antibiotics.
"When
you're talking about insects you're talking about extremely promiscuous
organisms that will mutate and breed quite uncontrollably,"
said Charles Margulis, an anti-biotech activist with the environmental
group Greenpeace.
He said there
is no guarantee that an insect designed to be sterile will turn
out that way.
The pink bollworm
moth infects about 500,000 acres of cotton in the Southwest. Farmers
have three options to control them: spraying a lot of insecticide;
planting an expensive variety of genetically engineered cotton
that makes its own insecticide; or by releasing moths sterilized
by irradiation.
Irradiated
moths are less effective in areas with heavy infestation because
the treatment damages the insects so much that they are slow to
mate. The genetically engineered moth is designed to have the
same sexual prowess as its wild cousins.
"He'd
be fully sexually aggressive and go out and meet and breed. He'd
be the first guy in the bars at night," said John Benson,
a farmer in California's Imperial Valley and a member of the California
Cotton Pest Control Board, which has funded the research through
producer fees.
"We see
this as the one sure way to get eradication," he said.
|
