ISSUE47: SEPTEMBER-DECEMBER 2007
network of research and training centres/programmes
UNU-BIOLAC advisor in agro-biotech breakthrough
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Dr. Alejandra Bravo |
A member of the scientific advisory committee of UNU Programme for Biotechnology in Latin American and the Caribbean (UNU-BIOLAC) is part of a research team that has unveiled an important discovery that will lead to environmentally safer agro-biotechnology.
Dr. Alejandra Bravo and colleagues from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and the University of Arizona have designed a new way of using Bacillus Thuringiencis (Bt) toxins, a common insect killing gene introduced in many genetically modified crops such as Bt Corn, without promoting resistance in these pests.
The researchers discovered how to
genetically modify the Bt gene so that its protein does not make contact
with the insect's receptor but is still able to kill of the bug. In the
report of their work, published in Science
magazine, co-author Dr. Bruce Tabashnik, from the
The research results address one of the main challenges facing the widely used Bt modified crops, that creation of highly resistant pests.
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