 Swindon,
United Kingdom
Autumn 2008
Source:
Planet
Earth, a publication of the
Natural Environment Research Council (NERC)
To any gardener who has just
discovered a whole row of precious plants destroyed by pests,
the following story offers some hope.
Researchers at Lancaster University have developed a remarkably
simple way to treat seeds that means later in life the plants
can fend off attacks from bugs.
Insect pests cost farmers and gardeners billions of pounds a
year. Traditionally, a strict regime of pesticides keeps them at
bay. But the economic and ecological costs can be huge. The
global market for crop protection, seeds and other chemicals
used in agriculture is valued at $60 billion, according to
Edinburgh-based agrochemical consultants Phillips McDougall in
June this year.
Genetically-modified crops are a solution. But, in the UK at
least, this solution has encountered hostility from the press
and the public. Lucky, then, that scientists may have found a
new approach.
Researchers at Lancaster University have discovered that dipping
seeds in a chemical that plants naturally produce prevents or
minimises attack from pests.
Jasmonic acid, or JA, is one of a plant’s natural defences
against being eaten. When a bug takes a bite of one of its
leaves, a
chemical signal warns other leaves. For many plant species, that
signal is JA. Once made, it moves to other parts of the plant,
triggering the production of other chemicals which in turn offer
protection against pests by hampering their ability to digest
food.
Full article:
http://www.nerc.ac.uk/publications/planetearth/2008/autumn/aut08-seeds.pdf
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