Meanwhile, researchers are hard at work designing new and more lethal
viruses to kill insects. If you thought neo-nics were bad, look out
for these

Interest in insect small RNA viruses (SRVs) has grown slowly but
steadily. This research has largely been
driven by interest in their potential for pest control, as well as in their
importance as the causal agents of disease in beneficial arthropods.

The reports of devastating
effects that SRVs can have upon insect populations have generally
emerged from developing nations where these viruses have been
employed as pest control agents (Hanzlik et al., 1999). Here we discuss
how the genetic simplicity of these viruses has made them attractive
candidates for the basis of a powerful new paradigm for insect control.

This paradigm involves production of the viruses in novel host systems
-- for example, the engineering of virus-producing recombinant crops
protected against herbivorous or sucking arthropod pests.

-- 
SMALL RNA VIRUSES OF INSECTS: EXPRESSION IN
PLANTS AND RNA SILENCING
Karl H. J. Gordon* and Peter M. Waterhouse

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