DEVELOPMENT OF A BIOPESTICIDE FOR SUGARCANE ROOT FEEDING PESTS D
Cane Matters / Autumn 2022
eveloping a sustainable alternative to agricultural chemicals for the control of greyback cane beetles is the focus of a new collaboration between Sugar Research Australia and The University of Queensland (UQ).
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Led by Professor Neena Mitter, Director of the Centre for Horticultural Science at the Queensland Alliance of Agriculture and Food Innovation (QAAFI) at UQ, the project will harness breakthroughs in ribonucleic acid (RNA) based biopesticides for the sugarcane industry. Neena said she was excited by the challenge, as the greyback cane
beetle is from the same group of insects as the Colorado potato beetle, a major pest of potato crops. An effective RNA-based biopesticide has been recently developed for the potato beetle, which is now being progressed to the market. Neena said it would be at least six months before early investigations on the cane beetle project could be reported. She said this was due to there being no information to work with on the cane beetle’s gene expression or transcriptome sequence, so the team has had to start from scratch.
Gene sequencing is vital to the project as it is through this process that those genes which are critical to the beetle’s survival or reproduction can be identified. Once these genes are known, RNA interference (RNAi) can be applied to switch off or silence them so that the organism cannot survive. Neena said the RNAi approach mimicked natural defensive mechanisms of the plant by using the pest organism’s own genetic messaging systems against itself. The technology could be compared to a plant vaccine.
