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

Website: http://www.lancs.ac.uk/

Published: October 15, 2008