RNAi The Next Breakthrough In Agriculture

By now you all know about our current genetically engineered traits in crops.  We call these events, low dose, as in they are not a very high dose of naturally produced insecticide thus resulting in the insects having to eat a fairly large amount of the plant before it will die.  These events work by shutting down an insect's digestion through blocking receptor points in their digestive tract.  These Cry proteins, and more recently Vegetative Insecticidal Proteins were groundbreaking initially, but with over reliance on single traits and abuse of refuge requirements is quickly leading to insect resistance in parts of the Corn Belt. 

The newest form of traits will likely come from a little known or heard of method.  These traits are currently in developmental stages and will hopefully prove more effective than their predecessors.  RNA interference or RNAi is currently being used in the medical field and revolves around a process called gene silencing.

To better understand this you must understand how DNA is turned into proteins every living thing uses to stay alive.  DNA is a string of chemical bases that contain codes for everything from growing organs to what hair color you have.  This sequence is read and copied by RNA and taken using messenger RNA or mRNA to various parts of your cells to code for proteins.  This process is repeated constantly in living organisms. 

RNAi involves blocking these mRNA from getting to where they need to go typically by destroying them.  So if you wanted to kill an insect you would insert this technology into a plant that would silence a specific mRNA in that insect that would lead to it's death.  The other abilities of this technology could be using RNAi in spray solution to shut down the part of plants that would make them resistant to certain herbicides. 

Like I said before, I doubt you have heard much about this technology yet unless you are in the medical field, but  you will likely hear more in the very near future.  It's exciting to see this as insects are becoming tolerant to pesticides, but will potentially slowly, if ever become resistant to RNA pathway obstruction like this. 

Here are some other good sources on information on SmartStax Pro and RNAi:

http://www.genomeweb.com/rnai/monsanto-moves-rnai-based-pest-resistant-corn-final-stage-development

http://www.producer.com/2013/05/rna-interference-technology-could-be-farmings-next-big-thing/