Progress 09/15/21 to 09/14/22
Outputs
Target Audience:
Nothing Reported
Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?
Nothing Reported
How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?
Nothing Reported
What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
We 1) Cultivate successive generations of the Camelina genetic line in order to harvest larger amounts of seed during 2020 and 2021 growing seasons. 2) Explored and develop methods to extract the oil from Camelina seeds harvested in 2019 and 2020 in small batches. 3). Explored and tested available methods to distill, remove and/or purify the desired pheromone precursors from the Camelina seed oil. 4) Incorporate Camelina-derived AIs into our controlled-release matrix, Specialized Pheromone & Lure Application Technology (SPLAT), which is made from safe, biodegradable, food-grade materials, and conduct field trials to compare these prototypes' efficacy when deployed as a mating disruption strategy, compared to SPLAT formulations produced with traditionally synthesized pheromones.
Publications
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Progress 09/15/20 to 09/14/22
Outputs
Target Audience:By bioengineering Camelina sativa plants with genes expressing insect pheromone enzymes to produce hydrocarbon chain-building blocks and create pheromone precursors, this production method will save energy in three ways: Firstly, this biological method eliminates the need to use petroleum-based and other long hydrocarbon chain compounds for feedstock, thus reducing reliance on finite fossil fuels. Secondly, the pheromone synthesis process will begin with a head start by starting with fatty acid precursors which can be synthesized into the final target insect pheromone via a far simpler process than traditional pheromone synthesis, simplifying the supply chain process of pheromone production. Thirdly, this biobased synthetic process eliminates the by-products of toxic waste, which costs significant time, energy, and money to dispose of properly. In contrast to traditional pheromone synthesis, which consumes fossil fuel products, GM Camelina plants rely on limitless solar energy harnessed through photosynthesis. The simplification of pheromone manufacturing achieved by this biobased method will substantially reduce production costs, making these environmentally safe pheromone pest control formulations economically feasible to wider array of growers and a wider array of crops than conventionally synthesized pheromones. Significantly, pheromone controls will no longer be out of reach for growers of lower-value-per-ha row crops, such as corn, soy, and cotton, allowing these growers to shift their pest management strategies away from environmentally hazardous, resistance-prone conventional chemical pesticides toward more sustainable, eco-friendly pheromone-based tactics. This shift would be a major step toward a broader reduction in global reliance on conventional pesticides, saving energy and reducing pollution. Other benefits include a decrease in food contamination with toxic chemical pesticides and damage to non-target species, such as pollinators, natural enemies of pest species, and humans. If this project is successful, we will replace a group of highly valuable petroleum-based products with natural, bio-based ones, increasing carbon sequestration and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Additional positive impacts on agriculture include increased capacity to control insect pests that have developed resistance to traditional insecticides, promotion of organic farming, and improved crop protection due to high specificity of pheromones. This technology will further benefit US growers by introducing GM Camelina as a valuable new commodity for them to produce. Changes/Problems:Covid 19 lockdown impeded us to travel, get to the lab and to go to the field. Now we are vaccinated and we expect to return to a new normalcy level that allows our teams to further perform this exciting project. Unexpected weather fluctuations impacted yields from the 2022 Nebraska seed propagation. Due to potential future weather fluctuations at time of seeding, early-stage propagations (<1kg) such as these will now be done in greenhouses where possible. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?
Nothing Reported
How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?
Nothing Reported
What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
By expressing the biosynthetic genes of insect and of plant origin, we have created, together with our collaborators from Lund University, plants that are capable to produce the required unsaturated fatty acids and corresponding alcohols; we have selected transformed lines that are producing high level of the pheromone precursors; we have isolated and purified the seed oil-derived pheromone precursors, and we have converted one of the precursors, Z11-16:Acid to the derived pheromone compounds, formulated these into slow release lures, and tested the lures' attraction of the target insects in field trapping experiment, which proved successful. We have also applied the plant-derived pheromone in the field and demonstrated trap-shutdown, a prelude to successful mating disruption with pheromones. We are confident that this will become one of the most cost-efficient ways to produce insect pheromone for insect pest control.
Publications
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2022
Citation:
Wang, H. L., Ding, B. J., Dai, J. Q., Nazarenus, T. J., Borges, R., Mafra-Neto, A., ... & L�fstedt, C. (2022). Insect pest management with sex pheromone precursors from engineered oilseed plants. Nature Sustainability, 5(11), 981-990.
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Progress 09/15/20 to 09/14/21
Outputs
Target Audience:By bioengineering Camelina sativa plants with genes expressing insect pheromone enzymes to produce hydrocarbon chainbuilding blocks and create pheromone precursors, this production method will save energy in three ways: Firstly, this biological method eliminates the need to use petroleum-based and other long hydrocarbon chain compounds for feedstock, thus reducing reliance on finite fossil fuels. Secondly, the pheromone synthesis process will begin with a head start by starting with fatty acid precursors which can be synthesized into the final target insect pheromone via a far simpler process than traditional pheromone synthesis, simplifying the supply chain process of pheromone production. Thirdly, this biobased synthetic process eliminates the by-products of toxic waste, which costs significant time, energy, and money to dispose of properly. In contrast to traditional pheromone synthesis, which consumes fossil fuel products, GM Camelina plants rely on limitless solar energy harnessed through photosynthesis. The simplification of pheromone manufacturing achieved by this biobased method will substantially reduce production costs, making these environmentally safe pheromone pest control formulations economically feasible to wider array of growers and a wider array of crops than conventionally synthesized pheromones. Significantly, pheromone controls will no longer be out of reach for growers of lower-value-per-ha row crops, such as corn, soy, and cotton, allowing these growers to shift their pest management strategies away from environmentally hazardous, resistance-prone conventional chemical pesticides toward more sustainable, eco-friendly pheromone-based tactics. This shift would be a major step toward a broader reduction in global reliance on conventional pesticides, saving energy and reducing pollution. Other benefits include a decrease in food contamination with toxic chemical pesticides and damage to non-target species, such as pollinators, natural enemies of pest species, and humans. If this project is successful, we will replace a group of highly valuable petroleum-based products with natural, bio-based ones, increasing carbon sequestration and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Additional positive impacts on agriculture include increased capacity to control insect pests that have developed resistance to traditional insecticides, promotion of organic farming, and improved crop protection due to high specificity of pheromones. This technology will further benefit US growers by introducing GM Camelina as a valuable new commodity for them to produce. Changes/Problems:Covid 19 lockdown impeded us to travel, get to the lab and to go to the field. Now we are vaccinated and we expect to return to a new normalcy level that allows our teams to further perform this exciting project. Unexpected weather fluctuations impacted yields from the 2022 Nebraska seed propagation. Due to potential future weather fluctuations at time of seeding, early-stage propagations (<1kg) such as these will now be done in greenhouses where possible. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?
Nothing Reported
How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?
Nothing Reported
What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?By expressing the biosynthetic genes of insect and of plant origin, we have created, together with our collaborators from Lund University, plants that are capable to produce the required unsaturated fatty acids and corresponding alcohols; we have selected transformed lines that are producing high level of the pheromone precursors; we have isolated and purified the seed oil-derived pheromone precursors, and we have converted one of the precursors, Z11-16:Acid to the derived pheromone compounds, formulated these into slow release lures, and tested the lures' attraction of the target insects in field trapping experiment, which proved successful. We have also applied the plant-derived pheromone in the field and demonstrated trapshutdown, a prelude to successful mating disruption with pheromones. We are confident that this will become one of the most cost-efficient ways to produce insect pheromone for insect pest control.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Covid 19 lockdown impeded us to travel, get to the lab and to go to the field. Now we are vaccinated and we expect to return to a new normalcy level that allows our teams to further perform this exciting project. Unexpected weather fluctuations impacted yields from the 2022 Nebraska seed propagation. Due to potential future weather fluctuations at time of seeding, early-stage propagations (<1kg) such as these will now be done in greenhouses where possible.
Publications
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