Publicaties

Since the discovery of RNA interference (RNAi), scientists have made significant progress towards the development of this unique technology for crop protection. The RNAi mechanism works at the mRNA level by exploiting a sequence-dependent mode of action with high target specificity due to the design of complementary dsRNA molecules, allowing growers to target pests more precisely compared to conventional agrochemicals. The delivery of RNAi ...

In recent years a lot of attention was given to possible applications of genetic engineering within integrated pest management (IPM). Insect resistant transgenic crops have now been created for many of the world’s economically important crops including maize, cotton, rice and potatoes. Lectins are only one group of proteins that have received a lot of attention because of their insecticidal properties. Although the physiological role of lectins ...

In the light of the ever-growing problem of insect resistance against the most commonly used groups of insecticides, there is much interest in the development of new alternatives to slow down the trend towards resistance build-up. In order to search for new insect-specific pesticides, we employed an in vitro cell-based reporter bioassay for screening for potential ecdyson receptor (EcR) agonistic and antagonistic activity in natural ...

The overall goal of the project ‘An International Plant Sentinel Network as an early-warning system; research on future pest threats (IPSN II)’ was to develop early warning systems for regulated and emerging plant pests and to provide information that can help prevent their introduction and mitigate their impact.
The project focused on three main objectives:
- Enhancing early detection of regulated and emerging pests
- Supporting ...