RNAi-based crop protection technology

食草昆虫每年破坏的作物产量占世界总产量的五分之一。化学农药仍然是控制害虫最有效的方法，但不幸的是，绝大多数化学农药也会杀死非目标有益昆虫，并对其他无脊椎动物和脊椎动物产生不利影响。如果我们希望既保护环境又保护我们的作物，就需要新的、环保的昆虫控制方法。这个短期研究项目的目标是探索RNA干扰（RNAi）技术的潜力，以保护作物免受一些最严重的经济害虫的侵害，同时又不伤害有益的物种。RNAi是一种使用双链RNA （dsRNA）沉默基因表达的方法。通过给昆虫喂食关闭特定必需基因的dna，我们可以在不影响非目标物种的情况下选择性地杀死害虫。由于RNAi的高度序列特异性，该技术可用于控制许多不同种植系统中的许多不同害虫。先正达是一家领先的农业生物技术公司，致力于开发新一代基于rnai的物种特异性农药，以保护我们的作物增加产量，同时保护我们的环境免受危险的广谱农药的侵害。加拿大是世界上最大的农业生产国和出口国之一，开发对环境更安全的农业害虫控制方法不仅将使加拿大成为农业生物技术领域的领导者，而且将确保加拿大的农产品被所有市场所接受。

Herbivorous insects are responsible for destroying up to one fifth of the world's total crop production annually.Chemical pesticides continue to be the most effective method to control insect pests, but unfortunately, the vastmajority of these chemicals also kill non-target beneficial insects and can adversely affect other invertebrateand vertebrate species. New, environmentally-friendly methods of insect control are needed if we hope toprotect both the environment and our crops. The goal of this short-term research project is to explore thepotential of RNA interference (RNAi) technology to protect crops from some of our most serious economicpest insects without harming beneficial species. RNAi is a method of silencing a gene's expression usingdouble-stranded RNA (dsRNA). By feeding insects dsRNAs that turn off specific essential genes, we canselectively kill pest insects without affecting non-target species. Due to RNAi's high degree of sequencespecificity, the technology could be adapted to control many different pests in many different cropping systems.Syngenta is a leading agriculture biotechnology company interested in developing a new generation ofRNAi-based species-specific pesticides that will protect our crops to increase yields while protecting ourenvironment from dangerous broad-spectrum pesticides. Canada is one of the largest agricultural producers andexporters in the world, and the development of environmentally-safer methods of controlling agricultural pestswill not only place Canada among the leaders in the agricultural biotechnology sector, but will ensure thatCanada's agricultural products are well accepted by all markets.