Posted 08.04.2009 at 4:00 pm
6 Comments
Western Corn Rootworm
Rootworms to the rescue!
What do you do when you're under attack? Call for help, naturally. Unfortunately, if you're an ear of corn, and you're being attacked by parasitic beetle larvae, you have nothing to call for help with. Until now.
Scientists at the University of Missouri have genetically modified corn to release a chemical distress signal when under attack from beetle larvae. The chemical 911 call attracts droves of parastitic roundworms that naturally attack the larvae. Within three days of receiving the distress signal, the worms had killed them all.
Originally, all corn made the worm-attracting chemical. However, years of selective mating bred that trait out of the corn grown in the US. To give the corn back its emergency chemical, the scientists inserted a gene from oregano that produces a similar compound to chemical excreted by wild corn.
Currently, there is no plan to introduce the worm-attracting corn commercially, as the scientists are still working on the right cocktail of chemicals to attract the right kind of organisms. However, with rising public outcry over pesticide secreting GM crops, and up to a billion dollars of beetle larvae damage in the US every year, a solution that protects the corn without any harmful pesticides would no doubt attract eager customers and protective worms in equal measure.
[via National Geographic and Nature News]
Want to learn more about breakthroughs in electronics, medicine, nanotech, and more?
Subscribe to Popular Science today, for less than $1 per issue!
Subscribe to Popular Science today, for less than $1 per issue!
6 Comments
To comment, please Login.
140 years of Popular Science at your fingertips.
Popular Science+ For iPad
Each issue has been completely reimagined for your iPad. See our amazing new vision for magazines that goes far beyond the printed page
Download Our App
Stay up to date on the latest news of the future of science and technology from your iPhone or Android phone with full articles, images and offline viewing
Follow Us On Twitter
Featuring every article from the magazine and website, plus links from around the Web. Also see our PopSci DIY feed
April 2013: How It Works
For our annual How It Works issue, we break down everything from the massive Falcon Heavy rocket to a tiny DNA sequencer that connects to a USB port. We also take a look at an ambitious plan for faster-than-light travel and dive into the billion-dollar science of dog food.
Plus the latest Legos, Cadillac's plug-in hybrid, a tractor built for the apocalypse, and more.
Popular on Popsci
Most Commented
Science
- SCOTUS Justices Can’t Find Science On Same-Sex Marriage
- How It Works: The Most Powerful Space Rocket
- Over Time, Nuclear Power Would Kill Fewer People Than Petroleum
- Something Is Killing Up To Half Of America's Bees
- Solar Panels Now Make More Electricity Than They Use
- This Is Now The World's Lightest Material
- Speed Of Light In Vacuum Is Not Actually Constant, Study Finds
- Melting Glaciers Are Increasing Extent Of Sea Ice In Antarctica, Says Counterintuitive Study
- This Weird Green Rock Is From Mercury
- Climate Change Belongs In Classrooms, Say New National Science Education Guidelines
Most Emailed
Science
- How The World Will End, According To 1939
- Cthulhu Lives In The Gut Of A Termite
- FYI: Do Lobotomies Work?
- This Amazing, Zoomable Universe-In-A-Browser Puts Everything In Perspective
- BeerSci: Want To Wet-Hop Your Beer? Grow Your Own Fresh Hops
- You Have A 'Breathprint'
- Today On Mars: Watch Curiosity's Parachute Flap Around In The Wind
- How Big Is A Galaxy? Milky Way Shown To Scale
- BigPic: What Does This Photo, Taken From The ISS, Show?
- The Changing Forensic Science Of Arson Is Freeing Innocent Convicts
Most Viewed
Science
- How The World Will End, According To 1939
- Cthulhu Lives In The Gut Of A Termite
- FYI: Do Lobotomies Work?
- This Amazing, Zoomable Universe-In-A-Browser Puts Everything In Perspective
- BeerSci: Want To Wet-Hop Your Beer? Grow Your Own Fresh Hops
- You Have A 'Breathprint'
- Today On Mars: Watch Curiosity's Parachute Flap Around In The Wind
- How Big Is A Galaxy? Milky Way Shown To Scale
- BigPic: What Does This Photo, Taken From The ISS, Show?
- The Changing Forensic Science Of Arson Is Freeing Innocent Convicts
Online Content Director: Suzanne LaBarre | Email
Senior Editor: Paul Adams | Email
Associate Editor: Dan Nosowitz | Email
Assistant Editor: Colin Lecher | Email
Assistant Editor:Rose Pastore | Email
Contributing Writers:
Rebecca Boyle | Email
Kelsey D. Atherton | Email
Francie Diep | Email
Shaunacy Ferro | Email
Today on PopSci.com
Copyright © 2012 Popular Science
A Bonnier Corporation Company. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited.
A gene from oregano...that produces a similar compound... why not use the gene from wild corn, to produce the exact compound?
I'm not sure I'd want to eat the modified corn anyway, most likely not if I knew which products it was in. Is there a list like that already available? What am I currently eating??
The oregano gene was probably much less complex to reproduce and/or may have had a better attraction quality.
What is the fear about GM foods? Afraid it will bond in your stomach and you'll have an ear of corn for a belly button?
I do think the feds need to mandate unique symbols/labeling for all the organic, non-gm, green produced (and exactly what that means) items. So many companies lie through their teeth about what the product really is.
Still, modification has been the human way. Technically, most of us should be dead from natural selection.
I don't know why some people think genetically modified food would somehow harm you if you ate it. You don't absorb DNA from the food, so you aren't going to change into "Spider-Man" or the "Incredible Hulk" if you do. All the food gets broken down, molecule by molecule in the same exact way other "natural" food has been since the beginning of life on Earth. If there are any toxins in the food that might harm you, it would show up in tests long before you saw it sitting on your dinner plate.
- rpenri,
What a shame, I've always admired the Hulk. Lol
The problem is we evolved along with plants, to be able to use some, and not use others. Now we come in, with 100 years of experience and think we know what we're doing with recombinant dna manipulations on food sources...
Arrogant much?
The problem is we evolved along with diseases, to be able to resist some, and not use others. Now we come in, with 100 years of experience and think we know what we're doing with antibiotics and vaccines...arrogant much?