Field Performance of a Genetically Engineered Strain of Pink Bollworm
Author Information
Author(s): Gregory S. Simmons, Andrew R. McKemey, Neil I. Morrison, Sinead O'Connell, Bruce E. Tabashnik, John Claus, Guoliang Fu, Guolei Tang, Mickey Sledge, Adam S. Walker, Caroline E. Phillips, Ernie D. Miller, Robert I. Rose, Robert T. Staten, Christl A. Donnelly, Luke Alphey
Primary Institution: Animal Plant Health and Inspection Service, United States Department of Agriculture
Hypothesis
Can a genetically engineered strain of pink bollworm perform comparably to a standard strain in field conditions?
Conclusion
The genetically engineered pink bollworm strain performed well in the field, showing comparable mating and dispersal abilities to the standard strain.
Supporting Evidence
- The OX1138B strain showed no significant differences in recapture rates compared to the APHIS strain.
- Dispersal distances were significantly greater for the OX1138B strain than for the APHIS strain.
- Field trials indicated that the genetically engineered strain could be reliably identified using a fluorescent marker.
Takeaway
Scientists created a special pink bollworm that glows and tested it in the field to see if it could work just as well as regular pink bollworms. It did!
Methodology
Field trials were conducted comparing the performance of the genetically engineered OX1138B strain with the standard APHIS strain in three cotton fields.
Potential Biases
Potential bias due to the involvement of authors affiliated with the company that developed the genetically engineered strain.
Limitations
The study was limited to specific field conditions and may not represent all environments.
Statistical Information
P-Value
p<0.01
Confidence Interval
95% CI: 7.8–33.3%
Statistical Significance
p<0.01
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
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