Geneticist still looking for chink in BMSB’s armor

COLLEGE PARK, Md. — Finding a weakness in the protective armor of the Brown Marmorated Stink Bug might prove to be an impossible mission. But, Dr. Leslie Pick, a University of Maryland molecular geneticist, chose to accept it.
Pick, with a checkoff grant from the Maryland Soybean Board, is plotting to attack the stink bug through its DNA.
In the first of what is expected to be at least a two-year study, Dr. Pick began the complex process of developing the RNA interference technology and to indentify gene sequences specific to the pest. Those gene sequences could be targeted to decrease the adult bugs’ fertility and viability.
In an interim report to the Soybean Board, Pick wrote that her “next aim is to demonstrate the efficacy of RNA interference in suppression of BMSB through feeding trials.”
Using the full length or partial cDNA isolated sequences, she said, “we will generate RNAi molecules in vitro that are specifically designed to degrade the mRNAs corresponding to these genes and will test two procedures for RNAi delivery — injection directly into embryos and injection into the abdomen of adult females.”
She added that the major hurdle to this portion of the project at that time was to establish an actively breeding colony of BMSB in the lab “that can be relied upon to lay eggs at regular intervals.”
Together with other labs in the IPM program in the Department of Entomology at the university, Pick and other scientists are testing various conditions — temperature, light/dark cycle, feeding regimens — to optimize the breeding colony.
“Once this is accomplished,” Dr. Pick said, “RNAi injections will begin.”