HortResearch's multi-disciplinary Gene-based Insect Science team is combining skills in entomology - physiology, pathology, behaviour, and ecology - molecular biology and biochemistry to develop new and safe methods for pest control.
Our strategy focuses on discovering, understanding and evaluating biochemical and molecular processes unique to insects and to the insect-specific viruses that attack them. This information is then used to develop new control technologies that will not harm humans or other non-target organisms.
We are investigating processes that may offer much greater opportunities for controlling insect pests by targeting specialised insect features, such as the gut and olfactory system. An important resource for these studies are EST libraries constructed from midgut and antennae of a key tortricid pest in
New Zealand . For example, by understanding how insects make substances like chitin, which is essential to them but absent from all other organisms except fungi, the team aims to develop methods to target such molecules and provide specific insect controls.
Insect-specific viruses provide unique specific insect controls and can be released as biological control agents or developed as biopesticides. However, by understanding host specificity of insect viruses, the team aims to develop novel insect control delivery systems by targeting insecticidal proteins to specific tissues within selected insect pest species, and potentially to change the range of insect pests attacked by an insect virus.
For a better understanding of our works, we recommend the following documents:
O'Callaghan, M; Glare, TR; Burgess, EPJ; Malone , LA
Effects of plants genetically modified for insect resistance on nontarget organisms
ANNUAL REVIEW OF ENTOMOLOGY, 50: 271-292 2005
Burgess, EPJ; Malone, LA; Christeller, JT; Lester, MT; Murray, C; Philip, BA; Phung, MM; Tregidga, EL
Avidin expressed in transgenic tobacco leaves confers resistance to two noctuid pests, Helicoverpa armigera and Spodoptera litura
TRANSGENIC RESEARCH, 11 (2): 185-198 APR 2002
Christeller, JT
Evolutionary mechanisms acting on proteinase inhibitor variability
FEBS JOURNAL, 272 (22): 5710-5722 NOV 2005
John T. Christeller, Louise A. Malone, Jacqui H. Todd, Richelle M. Marshall, Elisabeth P.J. Burgess and Bruce A. Philip
Distribution and residual activity of two insecticidal proteins, avidin and aprotinin, expressed in transgenic tobacco plants, in the bodies and frass of Spodoptera litura larvae following feeding
Journal of Insect Physiology, Volume 51, Issue 10, October 2005, Pages 1117-1126
Malone , LA ; Todd, JH; Burgess, EPJ; Christeller, JT
Development of hypopharyngeal glands in adult honey bees fed with a Bt toxin, a biotin-binding protein and a protease inhibitor
APIDOLOGIE, 35 (6): 655-664 NOV-DEC 2004
Malone, LA; Tregidga, EL; Todd, JH; Burgess, EPJ; Philip, BA; Markwick, NP; Poulton, J; Christeller, JT; Lester, MT; Gatehouse, HS
Effects of ingestion of a biotin-binding protein on adult and larval honey bees
APIDOLOGIE, 33 (5): 447-458 SEP-OCT 2002
Markwick, NP; Docherty, LC; Phung, MM; Lester, MT; Murray, C; Yao, JL; Mitra, DS; Cohen, D; Beuning, LL; Kutty-Amma, S; Christeller, JT
Transgenic tobacco and apple plants expressing biotin-binding proteins are resistant to two cosmopolitan insect pests, potato tuber moth and lightbrown apple moth, respectively
TRANSGENIC RESEARCH, 12 (6): 671-681 DEC 2003
Murray, C; Sutherland, PW; Phung, MM; Lester, MT; Marshall, RK; Christeller, JT
Expression of biotin-binding proteins, avidin and streptavidin, in plant tissues using plant vacuolar targeting sequences
TRANSGENIC RESEARCH, 11 (2): 199-214 APR 2002