BEE-L Archives

Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology

BEE-L@COMMUNITY.LSOFT.COM

Options: Use Monospaced Font
Show Text Part by Default
Show All Mail Headers

Message: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]
Topic: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]
Author: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]

Print Reply
Subject:
From:
Juanse Barros <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Sun, 13 May 2012 22:05:52 -0400
Content-Type:
text/plain
Parts/Attachments:
text/plain (30 lines)
What happens to bees with this E-beta-farnasene?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/may/13/gm-crops-harpenden-wheat-activists?CMP=twt_gu

Aphids cause more than £100m of damage to crops in this country," he said.
"However, instead of killing them off with insecticides, which wash off the
soil into rivers and streams and cause pollution, we have persuaded the
wheat to emit a chemical called E-beta-farnasene, which is emitted by
aphids when they are threatened. It tells other aphids to fly away. It also
attracts aphid predators such as ladybirds and wasps."

The chemical therefore delivers a double whammy. It scares off aphids and
attracts predators that will kill off the aphids that didn't heed the first
warning. However, the chemical – which smells of Granny Smith apples,
according to Pickett – quickly dissipates when sprayed on crops, limiting
its effectiveness.

"We had to get the wheat to manufacture the chemical," he added. After
years of research, his team succeeded in creating a GM variety that did
this by inserting into the wheat's DNA a gene that makes organisms
manufacture E-beta-farnasene

             ***********************************************
The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software.  For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html

Guidelines for posting to BEE-L can be found at:
http://honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm

ATOM RSS1 RSS2