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Transgenic cotton and sterile insect releases synergize eradication of pink bollworm a century after it invaded the United States
Thursday, 2021/01/07 | 08:34:59
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Bruce E. Tabashnik, Leighton R. Liesner, Peter C. Ellsworth, Gopalan C. Unnithan, Jeffrey A. Fabrick, Steven E. Naranjo, Xianchun Li, Timothy J. Dennehy, Larry Antilla, Robert T. Staten, and Yves Carrière. PNAS January 5, 2021 118 (1) e2019115118 SignificanceWe report eradication of the pink bollworm, one of the world’s most damaging crop pests, from the cotton-growing areas of the continental United States and northern Mexico. A coordinated, multitactic program achieved this success a century after the pest invaded both countries. The program included releases of billions of sterile pink bollworm moths from airplanes and planting of cotton engineered to produce insect-killing proteins from the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis. Analysis of computer simulations and 21 y of field data from Arizona indicate these two tactics interacted synergistically to suppress the pest. By eradicating the pink bollworm, the program ended the damage it caused to cotton and the insecticide sprays used to control it, yielding economic, environmental, and social benefits. AbstractInvasive organisms pose a global threat and are exceptionally difficult to eradicate after they become abundant in their new habitats. We report a successful multitactic strategy for combating the pink bollworm (Pectinophora gossypiella), one of the world’s most invasive pests. A coordinated program in the southwestern United States and northern Mexico included releases of billions of sterile pink bollworm moths from airplanes and planting of cotton engineered to produce insecticidal proteins from the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt). An analysis of computer simulations and 21 y of field data from Arizona demonstrate that the transgenic Bt cotton and sterile insect releases interacted synergistically to reduce the pest’s population size. In Arizona, the program started in 2006 and decreased the pest’s estimated statewide population size from over 2 billion in 2005 to zero in 2013. Complementary regional efforts eradicated this pest throughout the cotton-growing areas of the continental United States and northern Mexico a century after it had invaded both countries. The removal of this pest saved farmers in the United States $192 million from 2014 to 2019. It also eliminated the environmental and safety hazards associated with insecticide sprays that had previously targeted the pink bollworm and facilitated an 82% reduction in insecticides used against all cotton pests in Arizona. The economic and social benefits achieved demonstrate the advantages of using agricultural biotechnology in concert with classical pest control tactics.
See: https://www.pnas.org/content/118/1/e2019115118
Figure 2: The simulated effects of sterile moth releases, Bt cotton, and both tactics combined on the population dynamics of pink bollworm. (A) The simulations with realistic values based on empirical data for Arizona for all parameters: initial population size (N0) = 200 million wild moths, proportion of cotton planted to Bt cotton (pBt) = 0.93, population growth rate per generation (Ro) = 1.6, proportion of moths emigrating out of the field from which they emerged (e) = 0.55, and the effective number of sterile moths released per generation (Seff) = 3 million (SI Appendix, Table S1). (B) Conditions as in A, except Ro = 3.2 and Seff = 120 million. Eradication is indicated by the lowest value for moths on the y axis (0.000001 × 1 million = 1 moth). The population stops growing when it reaches the carrying capacity of 200 billion moths. |
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(111).png "Transgenic cotton and sterile insect releases synergize eradication of pink bollworm a century after it invaded the United States")
