Chloroplast Genome Engineering: A Plausible Approach to Combat Chili Thrips and Other Agronomic Insect Pests of Crops

The world population's growing demand for food is expected to increase dramatically by 2050. The agronomic productivity for food is severely affected due to biotic and abiotic constraints. At a global level, insect pests alone account for similar to 20% loss in crop yield every year. Deployment of noxious chemical pesticides to control insect pests always has a threatening effect on human health and environmental sustainability. Consequently, this necessitates for the establishment of innovative, environmentally friendly, cost-effective, and alternative means to mitigate insect pest management strategies. According to a recent study, using chloroplasts engineered with double-strand RNA (dsRNA) is novel successful combinatorial strategy deployed to effectively control the most vexing pest, the western flower thrips (WFT: Frankliniella occidentalis). Such biotechnological avenues allowed us to recapitulate the recent progress of research methods, such as RNAi, CRISPR/Cas, mini chromosomes, and RNA-binding proteins with plastid engineering for a plausible approach to effectively mitigate agronomic insect pests. We further discussed the significance of the maternal inheritance of the chloroplast, which is the major advantage of chloroplast genome engineering.

Automated summary

The growing demand for food by the world population is expected to increase significantly by 2050. Both biotic and abiotic constraints severely affect agronomic productivity for food. Insect pests alone cause about 20% loss in crop yield every year globally. The use of chemical pesticides to control insect pests poses threats to human health and environmental sustainability. Therefore, innovative and environmentally friendly alternatives are needed to mitigate insect pest management strategies. Recent studies have shown that engineering chloroplasts with double-strand RNA (dsRNA) is an effective method to control western flower thrips and other pests. This biotechnological approach provides a promising solution for mitigating agronomic insect pests.