To a soybean plant, an aphid is a lot like a mosquito. What if we could help soybean plants fight back...and win? Scientists in Iowa might have found a way that doesn't involve pesticides.
W. Allen Miller, a professor of plant pathology at Iowa State University, and his colleague, entomology professor Bryony Bonning, have been studying a plant virus that aphids eat but just passes through them. The scientists are working on adding a gene to soybeans with the protein coat from the virus attached to an aphid toxin, so that when aphids feed on the plant, they die. The gene wouldn't affect humans.
"Something else could feed on the plant and they would not be hit by this," Miller says. "It would be a very specific resistance approach." The scientists have preliminary data but need to do more control experiments to prove that their technique works.
In Iowa, soybean crops lost to aphids could top $250 million if nothing is done, according to research from the university. Iowa's soybean growers already shell out more than $65 million annually for pesticides, which can also kill aphids' natural predators.
"The last few years there have been crop dusters flying around," Miller says. "The only reason is the soybean aphids. If you had plants that are resistant, you wouldn’t have to do this."
Photo: Beyond bug spray--Students get swarmed with soybean aphids on the ISU campus. Credit: Logan Gaedke for Iowa State Daily.
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