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Submitted to: Sugar Journal
Publication Type: Trade Journal Publication Acceptance Date: 2/7/2001 Publication Date: N/A Citation: N/A Interpretive Summary: Interpretive Summary not needed for Trade Journal. Technical Abstract: One of the most devastating insect pests of sugarbeet in the U.S. is the root maggot (Tetanops myopaeformis Roder). Losses average about 23% but can be as high as 100% in infested fields. These losses may increase in the next few years due to the anticipated removal by the EPA of some of the chemical pesticides effective against the maggot. Currently no biological control measures are available except for a recently patented biocontrol fungus. Introduction of multiple resistance genes into transgenic plants may prove to be the most effective and perhaps the most sustained means of controlling diseases and insect infestations. One approach to insect control is to engineer sugarbeets with genes that produce proteinase inhibitors that specfically target the insect's digestive enzymes (proteases) that are essential for digestion of ingested food for normal insect growth and development. To target the sugarbeet root maggot, we determined the nature of the maggot's digestive enzymes in feeding insect larvae. We excised the guts from the insects and determined using commercially available inhibitors that most of the gut digestive activity was inhibited by inhibitors specific for two classes of digestive enzymes. Further research is in progress to identify genes that specifically produce these proteinase inhibitors so that we can reengineer them for production in the taproots of sugarbeet plants. |
