Science
First known gene transfer from plant to insect identified – Nature.com
Discovery that a whitefly uses a stolen plant gene to elude its host’s defences may offer a route to new pest-control strategies.
Some whiteflies use plant genes to render toxins in their food harmless.Credit: Getty
A pernicious agricultural pest owes some of its success to a gene pilfered from its plant host millions of years ago.
The finding, reported today in Cell1, is the first known example of a natural gene transfer from a plant to an insect. It also explains one reason why the whitefly Bemisia tabaci is so adept at munching on crops: the gene that it swiped from plants enables it to neutralize a toxin that some plants…
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