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Monsanto, Harvard collaborate to stay ahead of insect resistance

Research published through a collaboration between Monsanto and Harvard is what Monsanto calls a breakthrough in crop insect control traits.  Monsanto says it will pave the way to target plant pests and pathogens that have developed resistance to prior agriculture solutions.  The plant technology is referred to as PACE, or phage-assisted continuous evolution.

The research by Monsanto and Harvard is published in the journal Nature under the title ‘Continuous evolution of Bacillus thuringiensis toxins overcomes insect resistance’.  It showcases how the new application of protein science can be applied to agriculture. Monsanto’s and Harvard’s research led to the development of a way to create, identify and evolve optimized proteins, up to 100 times faster than previous methods.

Monsanto says the discovery enables faster advancements in the improvement of crops and agronomic traits, such as insect control and herbicide tolerance.