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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/28/business/energy-environment/genetic-weapon-against-insects-raises-hope-and-fear-in-farming.html?_r=1">http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/28/business/energy-environment/genetic-weapon-against-insects-raises-hope-and-fear-in-farming.html?_r=1</a><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:#CDCDCD'>http://ryti.rns/ljl3Plq<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><b><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>ENERGY </span></b><b><span style='font-size:9.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'>& </span></b><b><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>ENVIRONMENT<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><b><span style='font-size:24.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>Genetic Weapon Against Insects Raises Hope<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><b><span style='font-size:24.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>and Fear in Farming<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'>By </span><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>ANDREW POLLACX JAN. </span><i><span style='font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>Zl, 2014<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>Scientists and biotechnology companies are developing what could<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>become the next powerful weapon in the war on pests - one that<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>harnesses a Nobel Pri2e-winning discovery to kill insects and pathogens by<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>disabling their genes.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>By zeroing in on a genetic sequence unique to one species, the<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>technique has the potential to kill a pest without harming beneficial<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>insects. That would be a big advance over chemical pesticides.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'>"If </span><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>you use a neuro-poison, it kills everything," said Subba Reddy<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>Palli, an entomologist at the University of Kentucky who is researching the<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>technology, which is called RNA interference. "But this one is very targetspecific."<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>But some specialists fear that releasing gene-silencing agents into<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>fields could harm beneficial insects, especially among organisms that have<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>a common genetic makeup, and possibly even human health. The<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>controversy echoes the larger debate over genetic modification of crops<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>that has been raging for years. The Environmental Protection Agency,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>which regulates pesticides, </span><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>will </span><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>hold a meeting of scientific advisers on<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>Tuesday to discuss the potential risks of RNA interference.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>"To attempt to use this technology at this current stage of<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>understanding would be more naive than our use of DDT in the </span><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>1950S," </span><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>the<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>National Honey Bee Advisory Board said in comments submitted to the<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>E.P.A before the meeting, at the agency's conference center in Arlington,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'>Va.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>RNA interference is of interest to beekeepers because one possible use,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>under development by Monsanto, is to kill a mite that is believed to be at<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>least partly responsible for the mass die-offs of honeybees in recent years.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>Monsanto has applied for regulatory approval of corn that is<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>genetically engineered to use RNAi, as the approach is called for short, to<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>kill the western corn rootworm, one of the costliest of agricultural pests. In<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>another project it is trying to develop a spray that would restore the ability<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>of its Roundup herbicide to kill weeds that have grown impervious to it.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>Some bee specialists submitted comments saying they would welcome<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>attempts to use RNAi to save honeybees. Groups representing corn,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>soybean and cotton farmers also support the technology.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>"Commercial RNAi technology brings u.S. agriculture into an entirely<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>new generation of tools holding great promise," the National Corn Growers<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>Association said.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>Corn growers need a new tool. For a decade they have been combating<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>the rootworm by planting so-called BT crops, which are genetically<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>engineered to produce a toxin that kills the insects when they eat the crop.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>Or at least the toxin is supposed to kill them. But rootworms are now<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>evolving resistance to at least one BT toxin.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>RNA interference is a natural phenomenon that is set off by doublestranded<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>RNA<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>DNA, which is what genes are made of, is usually double stranded, the<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>famous double helix. But RNA, which is a messenger in cells, usually<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>consists of a single strand of chemical units representing the letters of the<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>genetic code.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>So when a cell senses a double-stranded RNA, it acts as if it has<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>encountered a virus. </span><span style='font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'>It </span><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>activates a mechanism that silences any gene with a<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>sequence corresponding to that in the double-stranded RNA<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>Scientists quickly learned that they could deactivate virtually any gene<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>by synthesizing a snippet of double-stranded RNA with a matching<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>sequence.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>The scientists who first unraveled this mechanism won the </span><span style='font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>2006<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, and it was initially assumed that<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>most of the use would be in medicine. Imagine drugs that could tum off<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>essential genes in pathogens or tumors, or one that contributes to high<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>cholesterol.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>The initial euphoria has cooled somewhat, in part because it has been<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>difficult to deliver the RNA through the bloodstream into the cells in the<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>body where it is needed. Still, the challenges are gradually being overcome,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>and enthusiasm is rising again.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>Using RNAi in insects, at least for beetles, should be easier than in<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>people. Beetles, including the com rootworm, can simply eat the doublestranded<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>RNA to set off the effect.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>One way to get insects to do that is to genetically engineer crops to<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>produce double-stranded RNA corresponding to an essential gene of the<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>pest.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>Various genetically engineered crops already harness RNAi to silence<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>genes in the crop itself. These include soybeans with more healthful oil and<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>a nonbrowning apple that appears close to federal approval. The<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>technique has also been used to genetically engineer virus resistance into<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>crops like papaya.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>But generally those crops had been developed using methods to<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>modify DNA that were known to work but were not understood at the time<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>to involve RNAi. Monsanto's new rootworm-killing com is one of the first<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>in which the crop has been engineered specifically to produce a doublestranded<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>RNA, in this case to inactivate a gene called Snf7 that is essential<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>for moving proteins around in the rootworm. Monsanto, which is based in<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>St. Louis, hopes to have the com, which it calls SmartStax Pro, on the<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>market late this decade.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>The double-stranded RNA could also be incorporated in sprays.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>Monsanto is developing a spray that would shore up one of its biggest<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>product lines - crops resistant to its Roundup herbicide. Farmers have<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>grown them widely because they can spray Roundup to kill weeds without<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>hurting the crop.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>Roundup, known generically as glyphosate, works by inhibiting the<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>action of a protein plants need to survive. But many weeds have evolved<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>resistance to Roundup. Some of these weeds make so much of the protein<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>that Roundup cannot inhibit it all.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>Monsanto's spray would use RNAi to silence the gene for that protein,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>reducing production of the protein and restoring the ability of Roundup to<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>kill the weed.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>Monsanto is also looking at putting RNA into sugar water fed to<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>honeybees to protect them from the varroa mite. The way to fight the mite<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>now is to spray pesticides that can also harm bees.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>''We were trying to kill a little bug on a big bug," said Jerry Hayes, the<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>head of bee health at Monsanto.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'>If </span><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>the RNAi is directed at a genetic sequence unique to the mite, the<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>bees would not be harmed by ingesting it, while the mites would be killed<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>once they attacked the bees. One field trial showed that this technique<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>could help protect bees from a virus. Monsanto acquired Beeologics, a<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>company developing the RNAi technology for bees. </span><span style='font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'>It </span><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>bought at least two<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>other companies pursuing agricultural applications of the technology. And<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>it has paid tens of millions of dollars for patent rights and technology from<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>medical RNAi companies like Alnylam Pharmaceuticals and Tekmira<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>Pharmaceuticals.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>But Monsanto is not alone. In </span><span style='font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>2012, </span><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>Syngenta signed an agreement to<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>work on RNAi sprays with Devgen, a Belgian biotech company, and later<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>said that it had acquired all of Devgen for around </span><span style='font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>$500 </span><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>million.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>Some scientists are calling for caution, however, In a paper published<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>last year, two entomologists at the Department of Agriculture warned that<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>because genes are common to various organisms, RNAi pesticides might<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>hurt unintended insects.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>One laboratory study by scientists at the University of Kentucky and<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>the University of Nebraska, for instance, found that a double-stranded<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>RNA intended to silence a rootworm gene also affected a gene in the<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>ladybug, killing that beneficial insect.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>Concerns about possible human health effects were ignited by a </span><span style='font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>2011<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>paper by researchers at Nanjing University in China. They reported that<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>snippets of RNA produced naturally by rice could be detected in the blood<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>of people and mice who consumed the rice and could even affect a gene<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>that regulates cholesterol. Such a "cross kingdom" effect would be<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>extraordinary and was met with skepticism. At least three studies<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>subsequently challenged the findings.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>In a paper prepared for Tuesday's meeting, E.P.A scientists said RNAi<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>presented "unique challenges for ecological risk assessment that have not<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>yet been encountered in assessments for traditional chemical pesticides."<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:9.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#9B9B9B'>A version of this article appears in print on January 28, 2014, on page A1 of the New York edition<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:9.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#9B9B9B'>with the headline: Genetic Weapon Against Insects Raises Hope and Fear in Farming.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>© </span><span style='font-size:9.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'>2014 The New York Times Company</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Kelly Rourke<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Program Associate</span><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Pollinator Partnership</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>423 Washington Street, 5th Floor</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>San Francisco, CA 94111-2339</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>T: 415-362-1137 </span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>F: 415-362-3070</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>E: <a href="mailto:kr@pollinator.org"><span style='color:blue'>kr@pollinator.org</span></a></span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><a href="http://www.pollinator.org"><span style='color:blue'>www.pollinator.org</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div></body></html>