GM plant virus repels insect pests

Researchers from the University of Florida and the University of Virginia in the U.S. and from Belgium’s Catholic University have developed a GM variety of tobacco mosaic virus that they say protects fruits, vegetables and most other broad-leafed plants from attack by insects. Tobacco mosaic virus normally attacks plants, but the GM version does not. Instead, it produces a chemical known as trypsin-modulating oostatic factor (TMOF). TMOF prevents insects from producing the digestive enzyme trypsin, and is therefore toxic to the wide range of insects that use trypsin to digest food. The press release says that TMOF is not toxic to humans.

The University of Florida press release can be viewed here on Agbios.com>>

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 14th, 2006 at 8:33 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.