Wide Angle: Arming Soybeans Against Pests
To a soybean plant, an aphid is a lot like a mosquito. What if we could help soybean plants fight back...and win? Scientists in Iowa might have found a way that doesn't involve pesticides. W. Allen Miller, a professor of plant pathology at Iowa State University, and his colleague, entomology professor Bryony Bonning, have been studying a plant virus that aphids eat but just passes through them. The scientists are working on adding a gene to soybeans with the protein coat from the virus attached to an aphid toxin, so that when aphids feed on the plant, they die. The gene wouldn't affect humans. Read More!
