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Weevils, which can devastate soft fruit crops by nibbling at their roots,
have been thwarted by Europe’s first crop of genetically engineered
strawberries. Julie Graham and colleagues at the Scottish Crop Research
Institute in Invergowrie near Dundee equipped the plants with an anti-weevil
gene from cowpeas. The gene produces a protein that blocks a digestive enzyme in
larvae, preventing them from feeding. “The roots of the engineered plants were
untouched, whereas the control plants were devastated,” says Graham, who is due
to publish results of the trials later this year.