Genetic pest control: plant-generated RNAi gene knockouts in agricultural pest

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Application of chemical pesticides in agriculture represents one of crucial causes of environmental pollution, destruction of wildlife and introduction of known carcinogens in human food chain. Currently in Canada 937 tons of pesticides are applied, which amounts to 49.8 kg per hectare. Even though the cost of pesticides itself is $1.3 billions, estimated environmental and societal cost exceeds $4 billions. Thus, it is imperative to develop alternative, environmentally friendly, pest control approaches. In our application we propose to develop novel genetic pest control using naturally occurring RNA interference mechanism as a method for the pest control. We are combining our previous genomic work on model pest species spider mite Tetranychus urticae with genetics and genomics of model plant Arabidopsis to engineer plants that will terminate pest development by blocking unique genes in spider mite. Using this approach in combination with carefully designed environmental tests we propose to develop a novel pest control method based on non-toxic molecules that could be in future transferred to agricultural crops. This approach has a potential to reduce environmental pollution and result in production of healthy food.