Blocking one gene stops crop-pest moth eggs from hatching
Cheng Y, Tian S, Cao Y, Chen X
Crispr
Fall armyworm caterpillars chew through corn, rice, and other crops across entire regions, so a gene that can quietly crash their egg-hatching rate from 87% to 33% offers a precise new way to knock back infestations without broad-spectrum sprays.
Fall armyworm is a caterpillar that devastates corn and other crops worldwide. Researchers found a gene active almost exclusively in the moth's ovaries that controls fat processing needed for embryos to develop. When they deleted that gene with CRISPR, the moths still laid normal numbers of eggs, but most of those eggs stopped developing partway through and never hatched.
Key Findings
LOC118266188 is a lipase gene with the highest expression among 3,000+ ovary-upregulated genes identified in fall armyworm.
CRISPR knockout females showed egg hatching rates of 32.70% versus 87.05% in wild-type, with mutant embryos arresting 24-36 hours post-oviposition.
Mutant ovaries showed downregulation of lipid metabolism pathway genes, linking the lipase gene to fat-dependent embryonic development.
chevron_right Technical Summary
Scientists disabled a single ovary-specific gene in fall armyworm moths and found it nearly stops their eggs from hatching, pointing to a new genetic target for controlling this major crop pest.
Abstract Preview
Original paper
An ovary-enriched lipase gene, LOC118266188, is required for embryonic development and female fertility in Spodoptera frugiperda.
The regulatory functions of ovary-enriched genes in female reproduction are well characterized in model insects, but remain largely unexplored in agricultural pests such as the fall armyworm (FAW),...
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