Entomological wars and the "good insects" of the Pentagon
"Good insects" Pentagon
One of the latest trends in the field of insect warfare is the DARPA Biotechnology Project, called Insect Allies, which can be translated as Good Insects or Allied Insects. Dr. Blake Beckstin, curator of the bioseparate Insect Allies, does her best to convince the public that the US Department of Defense's promising research projects are engaged in insects exclusively for peaceful purposes. According to him, the office is exploring the possibility of transferring beneficial genes with the help of viruses that infect insects. Thus, it is possible to “instill” in one cycle of vegetation to cultivated plants, on the yield of which food security of the USA, resistance to parasites, weeds, adverse natural conditions, or even herbicides depend. A kind of genetic umbrella is being created that protects the country's agriculture from various negatives.
Dr. Blake Backin
Schematic diagrams of plant infection with insects
In front of all other plant protection methods, the idea of “Insect Allies” is unique in its efficiency: millions of insects infected with beneficial viruses can inoculate a particular resistance gene in several weeks, days, or even hours for cultivated plants. A farmer planting corn, in the event of a threat, for example, drought, may turn to the state, and he will be given several boxes of insects, “armed” with plant viruses with wired resistance genes. It looks like this if you completely simplify the mechanism of functioning of “Insect Allies”.
Work in the US on this project has been going on since the end of 2016, the end is planned for 2020, the total cost will be about 27 million dollars. Now on the development team is the Boyce Thompson Plant Research Institute, the University of Pennsylvania, Ohio State University and the University of Texas at Austin. Aphids, leafworms and whiteflies were chosen as the main “workhorses”. Each insect transmits a specific artificial virus to plant cells, in whose DNA (RNA) a specific gene is “hidden”. At the heart of the project "Insect Allies" is a new technology CRISPR / Cas9, allowing you to quickly and inexpensively introduce genes into viruses and bacteria. The modified virus is inserted into the nucleus of the cell, and the gene starts the process of biosynthesis of a new protein, which creates the resistance of cultivated plants, which is so necessary for DARPA. Viruses can also “turn off” individual plant genes responsible for growth, which may be necessary during droughts. Such a two-stage transfer system on paper looks very nice, but it’s too early to talk about practical implementation. However, biologists from the French University of Montpellier and the German Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology and the University of Freiburg, after studying the potential of Insect Allies, declared a violation of the Convention on the Prohibition of Biological weapons.
"Workhorses" project "Insect Allies"
The main prosecutor of the biological project “Insect Allies” is Guy Reeves, specializing in the study of threats from genetically modified organisms. In particular, Dr. Guy Reeves and his colleagues published a series of articles, including in the authoritative journal Science, in which he points out the inexpediency of organizing such a program exclusively for peaceful purposes.
"It is much easier to kill or sterilize a plant with the help of gene editing than to make it resistant to herbicides or insects,"
- writes in this regard, Dr. Reeves.
The scientist also rightly believes that the American biological initiative will not remain without a similar response from other countries, and this will unleash the race of biological weapons. Europeans cite the Convention banning “weapons, equipment or means of delivery intended for the use of agents or toxins for hostile purposes or in armed conflict” as arguments. Actually, the aphid or whitefly perfectly fit the definition of such a weapon.
As an alternative, the Europeans propose in such cases to use traditional means - spraying chemicals and introducing the necessary genes at the embryonic stage.
Dr. Blake Beckstin issued in response a special report in which he broadly broadcasts about the dangers of the old methods and the revolutionary approach of the DARPA team. Also, the doctor pays special attention to the safety of work - all research takes place in huge greenhouses, of which not a single genetically modified organism can fly away / crawl. But what about the “spent” insects that have fulfilled their mission? After all, they will continue to multiply, infecting with their viruses more and more new cultivated areas. Here Beckstin leaves already quite in science fiction. It is assumed that aphids along with whitefly will be pre-programmed for imminent death in a short time. Sunlight may be one of the options — as soon as the sun rises, insects will synchronously die on the leaves of the corn. That is, insects should do their good deed on plant viruses overnight!
Also among the priorities of the biological bureau DARPA there are developments of genetically modified plants that can change their appearance in the case of the use of biological or chemical weapons by the enemy.
In fairness it should be said that biologists from the project “Insect Allies” at the end of last year were only at the stage of selecting a suitable virus. Also, developers can boast aphids, able to infect maize with the gene responsible for the fluorescence of the leaves. Until full-scale tests of these useful viruses so far. There is an assumption that the whole program of creating a peaceful product will end in nothing, but the achievements on the use of insects for military purposes will be obtained.
Lockwood's Six-Legged Soldiers
In the previous part of the story The use of insects for military interests was discussed, but the problem of bioterrorism is also important. One of the first to talk about this was Dr. Jeffrey Alan Lockwood of the University of Wyoming. In 2009, he published a book about stories the use of insects for military purposes, which made a lot of noise. The work was published under the title "Six-legged soldiers: the use of insects as a weapon of war" and, among other things, identified the threats that the modern world would face. Already in the 1989 year in the United States recorded cases of biological terrorism - in the valley of San Joaquin (California), attackers threatened to bring the Mediterranean fruit fly.
Mediterranean fruit fly
She was able to destroy all agricultural crops and plantings of the region, which would cost hundreds of millions of dollars. The invasion of the flies was then fixed and spent a lot of money on neutralization, but it was still unknown if it was really the hands of terrorists. The use of insects in the interests of terror is a convenient and effective tool. Cabbage moth, cotton worms, fruit flies - this list of fighting insects is endless. For example, soybean aphid not only sucks the juice, but also infects plants with viral diseases. And it spreads with great speed - about 800 meters per day. Costs for the destruction of aphids and others like it, as well as crop losses can amount to billions of dollars. The US Department of Agriculture still recognizes that they lack adequate protective measures from many biological threats.
It is noteworthy that in the United States, with their powerful biological defense system, until the end of the 20th century, it was believed that outbreaks of infectious diseases to Americans are not terrible. So far, mosquitoes in 1999 have not staged an epidemic of West Nile fever in New York. She came from Africa and, despite the announced quarantine, covered many regions of the country. As a result, more than 7 thousands of patients and 654 died. This is an obvious failure of the American health care system. Ticks and mosquitoes that live in most regions of the world can also tolerate the much more dangerous Crimean-Congolese hemorrhagic fever and Rift Valley fever. According to specialists, there is enough equipment for just 100 dollars to freely transport infected insects to any country in the world. That is why the development of national structures of biological protection of the population and cultivated plants has recently become one of the priority state tasks.
- Evgeny Fedorov
- newsbeezer.com, mpg.de
- Insects on the warpath
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