St. Louis-Monsanto Co., working with Devgen NV and modeling a Nobel Prize winning discovery, has come up with a new in-the-seed approach to protecting crops against insects. Monsanto said the technology – called RNA interference, or RNAi – is a biological mechanism found in nature as a way to regulate gene expression. Monsanto said it had identified novel applications of RNAi that enable plants to be better protected against insect pests that feed on crops and impact yield. “RNA interference is an incredibly promising method for crop improvement overall,” said Dr. Robert Fraley, Monsanto executive vice president and chief technology officer. “Because of its specificity, this exciting technology can help us in areas of plant science that until now have simply not been possible.” Devgen CEO Thierry Bogaert added, “This technology has the ability to effectively control very specific plant pests. This is a breakthrough in crop protection.” The research is expected to allow scientists to harness the cell’s natural ability to regulate protein production and apply it to produce insect protection for the plant. Monsanto scientists are working on incorporating this promising application of RNAi into one of the company’s future insect-protected corn projects. The study is published in the journal Nature Biotechnology at http://www.nature.com/naturebiotechnology.
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