MAIZE has been genetically engineered to produce a chemical rallying cry for help against the plant’s worst pest in the US.
The signal is an odorous chemical called (E)-beta-caryophyllene. It attracts nematodes that kill the larvae of the western corn rootworm, responsible for an estimated $1 billion in lost revenue in the US every year.
Ted Turlings of the University of Neuchâtel in Switzerland and his colleagues inserted a gene from oregano that codes for caryophyllene into maize plants.
“We saw a 50 per cent drop in damage to the engineered plants, compared with the controls. It was quite dramatic,” he says.…
