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Pioneer working new modes of action for corn rootworm control

tom_greeneDuPont Pioneer researchers are working on a couple of corn rootworm control alternatives, but it’ll be a while before they’re ready for the market.  Pioneer trait discovery lead Tom Greene says one is a new non-Bt protein based mode of action for controlling what Greene calls a billion dollar pest.

capture“Having new and different modes of action always helps the farmers with respect to a more durable control,” Greene told Brownfield Ag News Tuesday, “and I think that’s what this represents, really a new mode of action that will hopefully extend the trait durability.”

The other insect control technology is called RNA interference (RNAi), which Greene says will also be used to control corn rootworm.

“As the insects eat the roots they will ingest the double-stranded RNAi and that will basically stop the expression of genes within the insect and cause mortality within the insect, so it’s really another mode of action,” said Greene.  “This is very different than the protein-based mode of action with the IPD072 discovery that we just announced in Science.”

Greene tells Brownfield it’s early in the development process – in the second of six phases, putting it about ten years away from being on the market.

AUDIO: Tom Greene (10 min. MP3)

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