Resistance

Batterham says one of the main aims is to find novel targets and proteins that the cotton bollworm produces that others don’t, or that are significantly different in this organism to others, to which new insecticides can bind.

One of the main problems with the pest is that it is resistant to nearly every class of chemical pesticide. Because proteins may be different or unique in this insect, it is hoped that the development of a targeted insecticide will calm fears of killing other organisms in the environment.

“I also want to understand the defence systems, because these organisms have very sophisticated defence systems, enzymes that can break down chemicals. And sometimes these enzymes are able to break down lots of different chemicals and so pose an ongoing threat.

“We need molecular markers to know where this moth comes from and goes to. If it can use a hundred different fruit, if it is so polyphagous, so catholic in its tastes, then we need to understand where it is moving to.

“Is it moving from one crop to another, is it moving from one area to another? How big is the population? Is Australia a whole population? Is the whole world a population? We need to understand that because if you don’t know where it comes from and goes to you can’t control it at the source.

“And we need to understand the relationship between this organism and its plant hosts. Why is it so darn good at using so many different plants?”

The first step is to do the deep sequence, a process which is underway now and is hoped to be complete later this year. Once that is done, the job of stitching the information together to see how the genes are aligned begins, followed by a deeper analysis of individual types of genes, and then the fun starts with the biology, Batterham says.

“It takes a long time, but I think there will be some benefits quickly. Our capacity to track this moth – we’ll have tools to do that within a year, good tools. But with novel pesticides, that might be 10 years out, but the benefit will roll out over the next one to 10 years.

“But what is really important is that that genome sequence is forever – we’ve done so those benefits will be in perpetuity. We will always have the capacity to intelligently control this moth, rather than what we’ve done in the past which is shooting shots in the dark, not knowing what we were really shooting at.”