{"id":479874,"date":"2025-10-07T07:21:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-07T07:21:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/479874\/"},"modified":"2025-10-07T07:21:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-07T07:21:08","slug":"sustainability-breakthrough-scientists-targeting-the-genetic-code-of-pests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/479874\/","title":{"rendered":"Sustainability breakthrough: Scientists targeting the genetic code of pests\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Pests can be the make-or-break factor for a season\u2019s harvest. Between\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nifa.usda.gov\/about-nifa\/blogs\/researchers-helping-protect-crops-pests\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">20% to 40% of global crop production\u00a0<\/a>is lost to pests annually, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.<\/p>\n<p>\u2026<\/p>\n<p>[Amidst] debates over farming practices and industry-funded campaigns, another option for crop protection is taking root.<\/p>\n<p>In Kansas City and St. Louis,\u00a0companies like\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/techaccel.net\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">TechAccel<\/a>\u00a0and its subsidiary,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.rnaissanceag.net\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">RNAissance Ag<\/a>, are developing the use of RNA-based pesticides. This biodegradable technology is meant to be a molecularly precise solution, targeting a pest\u2019s genes to shut down the very proteins it needs to survive.<\/p>\n<p>Follow the latest news and policy debates on sustainable agriculture, biomedicine, and other \u2018disruptive\u2019 innovations. Subscribe to our newsletter.<\/p>\n<p>Traditional chemicals are like a shotgun blast. The mark is hit, but the blast also creates a ton of collateral damage \u2026.<\/p>\n<p>RNI, on the other hand, is more of a sniper rifle; it\u2019s programmed with the genetic information of a single target, and it leaves everything else completely alone.<\/p>\n<p>\u2026<\/p>\n<p>TechAccel\u2019s primary focus is the development of sprayable RNAi products against agricultural pests like the diamondback moth, fall armyworm, and the Colorado potato beetle \u2014 insects that tend to be more resistant to insecticides.<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/flatlandkc.org\/news-issues\/techaccel-rnaissance-steve-meyer-kansa-state\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">This is an excerpt. Read the original post here<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pests can be the make-or-break factor for a season\u2019s harvest. Between\u00a020% to 40% of global crop production\u00a0is lost&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":479875,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3846],"tags":[267,70,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-479874","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-genetics","8":"tag-genetics","9":"tag-science","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115331680394575467","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479874","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=479874"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479874\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/479875"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=479874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=479874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=479874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}