RIVERSIDE, Calif. -- The camelina plant, a source of cooking oil for centuries, is on its way toward revolutionizing pest control in agriculture.

Scientists at ISCA, Inc., a green agtech company based in Riverside, Calif., and their collaborators in Sweden have successfully "grown" insect sex pheromone precursors in genetically modified strains of camelina plants, creating a low-cost source of pheromones needed for sustainable pest control.

The Swedish research team from the Lund University, Swedish Agricultural University, and SemioPlant, and the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, modified the genetic code of these plants to contain genes of insects and other organisms that guide the formation of the desired pheromones. The plants produce insect pheromone precursor compounds in their abundant seed oil.

ISCA, a world leader in pheromone-based insect controls, has grown successive generations of the transgenic camelina plants and developed a prototype product with plant-derived pheromones to control the cotton bollworm moth (Helicoverpa armigera), a major world pest species that causes hundreds of millions of dollars annually in damage to cotton, corn, tomato, chickpea, and other crops.

Read on: https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2021-01/ii-gpg011421.php