Insecticides have been used for a long time by many farmers and people in the agriculture business and until now Insects had been able to build resistances to all form of these insecticides. New research from University of California San Diego have just created a new process that converts the insecticide resistance genes back to their original wild types. The process involves creating a genetic cassette that in this case is inserted into fruit flies which then targets a voltage gated sodium ion channel. The cassette makes a cut at the channel which is that of the resistance to insecticides and is then switched out for a native non-resistant version of the gene. With introducing this concept into the actual world the scientists plan to regularly check up on the effectiveness of the introduced insects with the cassettes. The cassettes would also be reintroduced if needed be as well.
By doing this the continuation of ramping up the amount of insecticides used in agriculture will decrease drastically due to the wild types that were converted will not be as used to the insecticides as they were before. And the cassettes last only as long as it would be required to convert 100% of the insect population to the non-resistant type. In a laboratory it took about 6 months for this to happen with a fruit fly population after eight to ten generations Creating a healthy new environment for the good bugs and having the plant life be less toxic from these insecticides.
Sources:
https://today.ucsd.edu/story/new-gene-drive-reverses-insecticide-resistance-in-pests-then-disappears
https://today.ucsd.edu/story/new-gene-drive-reverses-insecticide-resistance-in-pests-then-disappears
While the time it takes to make these fruit fly colonies with the genetic cassette is quite long, it's great to see that in the future, farmers will use fewer insecticides will be utilized in agriculture, producing better food for us to make. Suppose researchers can reduce that time from 6 months to create these colonies. In that case, food quality will significantly increase, creating a better ecosystem for the advantageous bugs in agriculture, like lady beetles that eat the bugs who eat the plants, leading to better food production.
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