Insect pest management with sex pheromone precursors from engineered oilseed plants

Abstract Pheromones have become an environmentally friendly alternative to conventional insecticides for pest control. Most current pheromone-based control products target lepidopteran pests of high-value crops, as today’s manufacturing processes cannot yet produce pheromones at low enough costs enable their use lower-value especially commodity crops. Camelina sativa seeds genetically modified express ( Z )-11-hexadecenoic acid, a sex pheromone precursor several moth species, provided the oil from which was isolated, purified and transformed into final pheromone. Trap lures containing this were then assessed capacity manage in field. Plant-derived proved equally effective synthetic monitoring diamondback moth, Plutella xylostella , cabbage disrupting mating cotton bollworm, Helicoverpa armigera common bean fields. Our study demonstrates biological efficacy economic feasibility production plant factories by metabolic engineering oilseed crop.