Fall armyworms with offspring-killing gene tested
on farms in Brazil
Male fall armyworms carrying a gene that kills female offspring were released on farms in
Brazil as a possible way to control wild populations of a major pest
LIFE 15 March 2022
By Michael Le Page
A fall armyworm
Shutterstock/kale kkm
Fall armyworms genetically modified to wipe out wild populations of the pests have been
released in corn fields in São Paulo State in Brazil in the first farm trial of the new
technology. The test was a success and is now being expanded, says Oxitec, the UK-based
company that created the modified armyworms.
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Fall armyworms
(Spodoptera
frugiperda)
in fact moth
navigation, analyze
site usage,
and assist inare
our marketing
efforts.caterpillars. They get their name
from the fact that they multiply very fast and feed on many plants. Swarms of armyworms
can devastate everything from
lawns
to crops in
just All
days.
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They are native to the Americas, but in recent years have spread across Africa, Asia and
Australia, reducing harvests of some crops by up to half. Conventional control methods
aren’t working well because some strains have evolved resistance to many pesticides.
“There is a lot of interest in new solutions to this pest,” says Neil Morrison at Oxitec.
“Growers are struggling to control it through insecticidal means.”
For its method of control, Oxitec took a strain of fall armyworm that is still susceptible to
pesticides and modified males so that their female offspring can survive only in the
presence of a specific chemical. In other words, the males carry a gene that kills all their
female offspring in the wild.
When the modified fall armyworms are released, they mate with wild females. Only male
offspring survive, and they can mate and spread the female-killing gene to another
generation. Unlike with pesticides, no other species are harmed.
Read more: World’s hungriest caterpillar is wreaking destruction around the world
If no more “Friendly™ fall armyworms”, as Oxitec calls them, are released, the femalekilling genes rapidly disappear from the wild population. If large enough numbers of
modified males are released, wild armyworms can be wiped out locally.
That is the theory, at least. Future trials will evaluate effectiveness, says Morrison. The
initial farm trial was only intended to test whether the released males behave as expected.
“For instance, after we stop releasing, does the self-limiting gene disappear from the
environment? Yes, it does,” he says.
The approach has already been approved in Brazil. “We can deploy those Friendly males
anywhere in Brazil without restriction,” says Morrison.
Oxitec is already selling “Friendly™ Aedes aegypti” mosquitoes in Brazil to prevent the
spread of diseases such as Zika and dengue. On 8 March, it got the go-ahead for their use
in pilot projects in California and Florida.
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