One of the latest trends in insect warfare is the DARPA Biotechnology Bureau's Insect Allies, which can be translated as Good Insects or Insects Allies. Dr. Blake Beckstin, curator of Insect Allies' bio-direction, is doing his best to convince the public that the US Department of Defense Advanced Research Projects Directorate deals with insects exclusively for peaceful purposes. According to him, the office is investigating the possibility of transferring useful genes using viruses that infect insects. Thus, in one growing season, it is possible to "graft" cultivated plants, the yield of which depends on US food safety, resistance to parasites, weeds, unfavorable natural conditions, or even herbicides. A kind of genetic umbrella is being created that protects the country's agriculture from various negativity.
Before all other methods of plant protection, the idea of "Insect Allies" is unique in its efficiency: millions of insects infected with beneficial viruses can in a few weeks, days or even hours inoculate cultivated plants (primarily corn) with this or that resistance gene. A farmer planting corn, in the event of a threat, for example, drought, can turn to the state, and he will be given several boxes of insects, "armed" with plant viruses with hardwired resistance genes. Something like this looks like, if we completely simplify the mechanism of functioning of "Insect Allies".
Work in the United States on this project has been underway since the end of 2016, the completion is scheduled for 2020, the total cost will be about $ 27 million. Currently on the development team are the Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research, Pennsylvania State University, Ohio State University and the University of Texas at Austin. Aphids, leaf rollers and whiteflies were chosen as the main "workhorses". Each insect transmits a specific artificial virus into plant cells, in the DNA (RNA) of which a certain gene is "hidden". At the heart of the Insect Allies project is a new CRISPR / Cas9 technology that allows quick and inexpensive introduction of genes into viruses and bacteria. The modified virus is inserted into the cell nucleus, and the gene starts the process of biosynthesis of a new protein, which creates the much needed DARPA resistance of cultivated plants. Viruses can also "turn off" individual plant genes responsible for growth, which may be necessary during drought. This two-stage transfer system looks very nice on paper, but it's too early to talk about practical implementation. However, biologists from the French University of Montpellier and the German Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology and the University of Freiburg, after examining the potential of Insect Allies, declared a violation of the Biological Weapons Convention.
The main prosecutor of the biological project "Insect Allies" is Guy Reeves, who specializes in researching threats from genetically modified organisms. In particular, Dr. Guy Reeves and his colleagues published a series of articles, including in the authoritative journal Science, in which they point out the inadvisability of organizing such a program solely for peaceful purposes.
"It is much easier to kill or sterilize a plant with gene editing than to make it resistant to herbicides or insects,"
- writes in this regard, Dr. Reeves.
Also, the scientist rightly believes that the American biological initiative will not remain without a similar response from other countries, and this will unleash the bioweapons race. Europeans cite the Convention on the Prohibition of "Weapons, Equipment or Delivery Means for the Use of Agents or Toxins for Hostile Purposes or in Armed Conflicts" as arguments. Actually, aphids or whiteflies perfectly fit the definition of such a weapon.
As an alternative, the Europeans suggest using traditional means in such cases - spraying with chemicals and introducing the necessary genes at the embryonic stage.
Dr. Blake Beckstin responded by issuing a special report in which he speaks at length about the dangers of old methods and the revolutionary approach of the DARPA team. Also, the doctor pays special attention to the safety of work - all research takes place in huge greenhouses, from which not a single genetically modified organism can fly / crawl away. But what about the "spent" insects that have fulfilled their mission? After all, they will continue to multiply, infecting more and more sown areas with their viruses. Here Beckstin goes completely into fiction. It is assumed that the aphid, along with the whitefly, will be pre-programmed for inevitable death within a short time. One option could be sunlight - as soon as the sun rises, the insects will synchronously die on the leaves of the corn. That is, insects must do their good deed to infect plant viruses in one night!
Also among the priorities of the biological bureau DARPA are the development of genetically modified plants that can change their appearance in the event of the use of biological or chemical weapons by the enemy.
It is fair to say that biologists from the Insect Allies project at the end of last year were only at the stage of selecting a suitable virus. Also, the developers can boast of aphids that can infect corn with the gene responsible for the fluorescence of the leaves. Real useful viruses are still far from full-scale tests. There is an assumption that the entire program for creating a peaceful product will end in nothing, but developments on the use of insects for military purposes will be obtained.
Lockwood's Six-Legged Soldiers
In the previous part of the story, we talked about the use of insects in military interests, but the problem of bioterrorism is also important. One of the first to talk about this was Dr. Jeffrey Alan Lockwood from the University of Wyoming. In 2009, he published a book on the history of the use of insects for military purposes, which made a lot of noise. The work was published under the title "Six-Legged Soldiers: Using Insects as Weapons of War" and, among other things, identified the threats that the modern world will face. Already in 1989, cases of biological terrorism were recorded in the United States - attackers threatened to bring a Mediterranean fruit fly into the San Joaquin Valley (California).
It was capable of destroying all agricultural crops and plantings in the region, which would have cost hundreds of millions of dollars. The fly invasion was then recorded and a lot of money was spent on neutralization, but whether it was really the work of terrorists is still unknown. Using insects for terror is a convenient and effective tool. Cabbage moth, cotton worms, fruit flies - this list of fighting insects is endless. For example, soybean aphid not only sucks out juices, but also infects plants with viral diseases. And it spreads at a tremendous speed - about 800 meters per day. The cost of killing aphids and the like, as well as crop losses, can be in the billions of dollars. The USDA still admits that they have no adequate defense against many biological threats.
It is noteworthy that in the United States, with its powerful biological defense system, until the end of the 20th century, it was believed that outbreaks of infectious diseases were not terrible for Americans. Until mosquitoes in 1999 staged an epidemic of West Nile fever in New York. She came from Africa and, despite the announced quarantine, covered many regions of the country. As a result, more than 7 thousand cases and 654 deaths. This is an obvious failure of the American health care system. Ticks and mosquitoes, which are found in most parts of the world, can also carry the much more dangerous Crimean Congolese Hemorrhagic Fever and Rift Valley Fever. According to experts, only $ 100 worth of equipment is enough to transport infected insects to any country in the world without hindrance. That is why the development of national structures for biological protection of the population and cultivated plants has recently become one of the priority state tasks.
