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STERILE SWD technology guided by precision moving in the tests
Farmers could soon start testing the efficiency of the genes published genes to control the winged drosophile spotted with sterile men.
The Commercial Director of Agragen Matt Helms told Brownfield: “We do not have pipelines from Big AG with new ingredients and active chemicals, and it is a technology that will not develop resistance and we do not introduce any new genetic equipment, so we call this a whole new category of insect control.”
Research and development director Stephanie Gamez told Brownfield that she has developed CRISPR-CAS9 technology in insects since higher education.
“The female, after hiding the sterile male, thinks she is coupled and tries to lay eggs,” she explains. “But the few eggs that she punctuates, they do not hatch, they did not light up anything and there is therefore no infestation, there is no offspring.”
Helms claims that the Agragen KOs have completed the field trials with the USDA and university researchers last season and will start tests with bay and fresh cherries this year in partnership with insectary partners if they are approved for an EPA experimental use permit.
He says it Sterile insect technology guided by precision could be available commercially by 2027.