A new generation of pesticides can be used to control pest insects by compromising the bug’s ability to create essential proteins.
A new generation of pesticides can be used to control pest insects by compromising the bug’s ability to create essential proteins. These gene-silencing pesticides can be genetically engineered into agricultural crops such that these crops can literally grow their own defense.
New research from the McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis shows how these emerging pesticides move through and degrade in soils. The research was published last month in Environmental Science & Technology.
Although the pesticide is created inside the plant, the questions about its degradation are similar to conventional pesticides applied externally to the crop: Does it break down? If so, under what conditions? In the soil? In lakes and rivers? What is the ecological risk?
Before these questions can be answered however, there needs to be a way to trace the pesticide and follow it as it moves and degrades in the ecosystem.
Read more at Washington University in St. Louis
