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 A naturally occurring virus
that
kills more than a dozen different kinds of crop-eating caterpillars may be
marketed as a bioinsecticide in a few years. Two ARS researchers--now
retired--discovered the celery looper virus and received a patent in 1990.
Now, biosys, Inc., of Columbia, MD, has registered the virus with the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency. The firm has signed an agreement with
Zeneca Agrochemicals, Surrey, England, for worldwide commercialization of
new insecticide products based on the microorganism. The virus quickly
kills caterpillars that accidentally eat virus particles while munching on
the plants. The microorganism doesn't target people, pets or wildlife. It
fells its namesake, the celery looper caterpillar, and other cotton and
vegetable pests including cabbage looper, tomato and tobacco hornworm,
cotton bollworm (also known as corn earworm and tomato fruitworm), beet
armyworm, diamondback moth, and pink bollworm. USDA has granted licenses for the celery
looper virus to biosys and to Sandoz Agro, Inc., Des Plaines, IL. Both
companies are continuing outdoor tests of the virus this summer.
Horticultural Crops Research Laboratory, Fresno, CA
Patrick V. Vail,
(209) 453-3000
About 13,000 summaries of ARS research findings can
now be searched in the agency's TEKTRAN
database. It's been available on the World Wide Web since April.
TEKTRAN is a new online window to ARS research labs--and to
farm, food, environmental, and industrial technologies and products of the
future. Besides the summaries, the WWW site offers links for investigating
new ARS technologies available for licensing. ARS adds new summaries to
TEKTRAN after scientists submit manuscripts to scientific journals.
Summaries are removed after three years. Browsers can conduct a full-text
search of the summaries, including titles, keywords, and author
information. They can also search by categories such as nutrition,
germplasm, pests, and soil management. Some summaries are not posted--to
safeguard intellectual property rights of ARS inventors and cooperators.
The Internet version of TEKTRAN was developed by the Technology Transfer Information Center
(TTIC) of ARS' National Agricultural
Library in cooperation with ARS' Office of Technology Transfer (OTT)
and National Program Staff. ARS is steadily improving TEKTRAN's scope and
convenience. The address is:
http://www.nal.usda.gov/ttic/tektran/tektran.html.
Office of Technology Transfer,
Beltsville, MD
C. Andrew Watkins, (301) 504-5734, andrew@ott.arsusda.gov
National Agricultural Library, Beltsville, MD
Kate Hayes, (301)
504-6875
Cooperative Research and Development Agreements
...With Alpharma, Inc., of Bellevue, WA, to help develop a vaccine against
columnaris disease of channel catfish grown in ponds. ARS researchers
will pinpoint crucial antigens for possible use as a vaccine. Antigens
are proteins produced naturally by the pathogen that cause a fish's immune
system to produce antibodies. Columnaris is a leading disease of channel
catfish, estimated to cause losses of $20 million to $30 million annually.
Since treatment options are limited, a vaccine is needed to prevent the
disease from gaining a toehold in catfish ponds. ARS Contact: Phillip H.
Klesius, Fish
Diseases and Parasites Research Laboratory, Auburn, AL, (334)
887-3741
...With Pioneer Hi-Bred International of Johnston, IA, to study the
genetics behind some corn roots' ability to probe deeper in the soil.
Called "corn root gravitropic response," this trait is
especially important when growing conditions are relatively dry and plants
must penetrate deeper to reach available soil moisture. Pioneer
Hi-Bred will provide seeds of corn lines that may have roots with a
propensity to grow farther down in the soil. ARS researchers will
determine if the ability to grow deeper is an easily inherited
trait--information that corn breeders can use in developing corn lines
that are more drought-tolerant.
ARS Contact: Richard W. Zobel, Plant, Soil and Nutrition
Research, Ithaca, NY, (607) 255-4573,
 ...With Ciba Crop Protection of
Greensboro, NC, to genetically engineer bacterial strains to combat
diseases in grain, cotton and vegetable crops. These strains would
produce an antibiotic, called 2,4-diacetylphloroglucinol, or Phl. ARS
scientists identified genetic elements that enable certain species of
Pseudomonas bacteria to make the Phl compound. It suppresses fungi that
cause take-all, one of the world's worst wheat diseases. Using molecular
techniques, the ARS scientists implanted Phl-making genes into bacteria
that normally could not make Phl. In the lab, the engineered bacteria
produced at least as much Phl as the Pseudomonas species that were
sources
of the inserted genes. ARS is providing bacterial genes that Ciba Crop
Protection scientists will insert into additional bacterial strains. The
company will test them for activity against a variety of diseases in
cotton and vegetable crops. ARS will test some of Ciba's strains against
take-all and other root diseases of wheat and barley. (Patent Application
08/494,907)
ARS Contact: Linda S. Thomashow, Root Disease and
Biological Control Research Unit, Pullman, WA, (509) 335-0930
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