Cornell entomologist Anthony Shelton has started testing the transgenic moths, which carry an autocidal gene that causes the insects' female progeny to die before reaching reproductive stage. The results of these trials, and of a handful of others in the works, will provide an indication whether the approach has commercial potential in agriculture and will provide a barometer of attitudes to the release of GM insects that lack a compelling trait for consumers.

The Oxitec moth approach, like its ground-breaking previous work on GM mosquitoes, is similar to the sterile insect technique (SIT), used for over 60 years to deal with screwworm fly, but without the drawback of employing radiation. SIT exposes insects to radiation to render them sterile before their release into the environment to reduce the population. But because radiation affects hundreds of genes, it leaves the insects less fit than their wild competitors. In SIT, separating males and females is also difficult, so both are released into the environment and tend to mate with each other, rather than with the pest population.

posted 3177 days ago