Grants and Contributions:

Grant or Award spanning more than one fiscal year (2017-2018 to 2018-2019).

Herbivorous insects are responsible for destroying up to one fifth of the world's total crop production annually.x000D
Chemical pesticides continue to be the most effective method to control insect pests, but unfortunately, the vastx000D
majority of these chemicals also kill non-target beneficial insects and can adversely affect other invertebratex000D
and vertebrate species. New, environmentally-friendly methods of insect control are needed if we hope tox000D
protect both the environment and our crops. The goal of this short-term research project is to explore thex000D
potential of RNA interference (RNAi) technology to protect crops from some of our most serious economicx000D
pest insects without harming beneficial species. RNAi is a method of silencing a gene's expression usingx000D
double-stranded RNA (dsRNA). By feeding insects dsRNAs that turn off specific essential genes, we canx000D
selectively kill pest insects without affecting non-target species. Due to RNAi's high degree of sequencex000D
specificity, the technology could be adapted to control many different pests in many different cropping systems.x000D
Syngenta is a leading agriculture biotechnology company interested in developing a new generation ofx000D
RNAi-based species-specific pesticides that will protect our crops to increase yields while protecting ourx000D
environment from dangerous broad-spectrum pesticides. Canada is one of the largest agricultural producers andx000D
exporters in the world, and the development of environmentally-safer methods of controlling agricultural pestsx000D
will not only place Canada among the leaders in the agricultural biotechnology sector, but will ensure thatx000D
Canada's agricultural products are well accepted by all markets.