Applying insect transgenic technology: Scientific and regulatory experiences

Thomas A. MILLER 한국곤충학회 2007 Entomological Research Vol.37 No.2

Biotechnology affords opportunities to develop new tools to treat pest and disease problems. When a given pest or disease problem has no satisfactory cure or treatment, usually only a technological breakthrough can provide one, but the process whereby this happens can be undefined and unpredictable. Furthermore, it is difficult to predict which methods will work at the outset, meaning that it is also difficult for funding agencies to determine which proposals to support. When a proposed solution is new and may involve genetic manipulation, it may also be hard for the public, as represented by regulatory agencies, to accept. In addition, when the application market is small, funding is modest. When the problem is major but periodic, as in the case of migratory locusts, funding, interest and attention cannot be easily found, focused or sustained. It is only when a problem is severe and economically compelling, such as Pierce's Disease of grapevine in southern California, that it is possible to concentrate funding, attention and sustained interest long enough to have a chance of finding a lasting solution.

Advances in insect biotechnology for human welfare

Thomas A. MILLER 한국곤충학회 2008 Entomological Research Vol.38 No.-

Biotechnology is the latest scientific breakthrough in the history of agriculture. Yet despite the promise of developing new tools for pest and disease control, transgenic organisms have encountered a mixed reception by the lay and scientific public alike. Yields are unable to keep pace with rising costs resulting in a decline in traditional farming. Switching to a new organic growing paradigm is occurring in Korea and the United States today. These new approaches ignore traditional tools that were responsible for the increased yields that support the current affluence and allowed us to protect crops while buying time to find more ecologically-friendly methods. The perception that we understand crop diseases and pests is false and those making this assumption risk destabilizing global food production. There are new pests and diseases that are very difficult to control without these traditional non-organic methods. Invasive species continue to arrive at high rates adding to the burden of farming. Global climate change is already causing changes in the pest and disease complexes and is forcing the entomologist and plant pathologist to make drastic changes to adjust to them.

Hvmar1, a mariner-like element from the tobacco budworm Heliothis virescens, can transpose in Drosophila melanogaster

김유정,Tiffany S. Han,Thomas A. Miller 한국곤충학회 2011 Entomological Research Vol.41 No.1

Transposable elements of the mariner family are widespread and have been found in the genome of plants, animals and insects. However, most of these elements contain multiple inactivating mutations and so far, only three naturally occurring mariner elements are known to be functional. In a previous study, a mariner-like element called Hvmar1 was discovered in the genome of the tobacco budworm Heliothis virescens. Further analysis of the Hvmar1 nucleotide sequence revealed the presence of 30-bp imperfect inverted terminal repeats and an intact open reading frame, which is considered to encode a functional transposase. In the present study, we show that the Hvmar1 element is active using interplasmid transposition assays in Drosophila melanogaster embryos. When injected into Drosophila embryos, the helper plasmid produced a transposase that was able to mediate transposition of the Hvmar1 element from a donor to a target plasmid. The transposition efficiency of Hvmar1 in D. melanogaster is approximately 11-fold lower than that of the well-known Mos1 mariner transposon. However, this efficiency is comparable to those observed previously with Mos1 in non-Drosophila insects. We identified 10 independent interplasmid transposition events, albeit the recovery of these events was rare. In each case the Hvmar1 element transposed in a precise manner, with the characteristic TA dinucleotides being duplicated on insertion. Furthermore, two of the target sites identified have been used previously by Mos1 for insertion. The active transposition of Hvmar1 in D. melanogaster provides a basis for examining the mobility of this element in its natural host as well as a starting point for comparative studies with Mos1 and other functional mariner transposons.

Pest and disease challenges and insect biotechnology solutions

Thomas A. MILLER 한국곤충학회 2008 Entomological Research Vol.38 No.1

Advances in microbiology and molecular genetics have led to renewed interest in microbial and host interactions, especially mutualism and symbiosis. More genome sequences are being reported every year; indeed, we are awash in information on an unprecedented scale. However, despite the greater amount of genomic information, we still have difficulty resolving species boundaries, and we still have much to learn about pathogen, vector and host interactions. Biotechnology approaches offer the promise of new tools for pest and disease control.

Current status and future of applied entomology in USA.

Thomas A. Miller 한국응용곤충학회 2011 한국응용곤충학회 학술대회논문집 Vol.2011 No.05

Glyoxal yield from isoprene oxidation and relation to formaldehyde: chemical mechanism, constraints from SENEX aircraft observations, and interpretation of OMI satellite data

Chan Miller, Christopher,Jacob, Daniel J.,Marais, Eloise A.,Yu, Karen,Travis, Katherine R.,Kim, Patrick S.,Fisher, Jenny A.,Zhu, Lei,Wolfe, Glenn M.,Hanisco, Thomas F.,Keutsch, Frank N.,Kaiser, Jennif Copernicus GmbH 2017 Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Vol.17 No.14

<P>Abstract. Glyoxal (CHOCHO) is produced in the atmosphere by the oxidation of volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Like formaldehyde (HCHO), another VOC oxidation product, it is measurable from space by solar backscatter. Isoprene emitted by vegetation is the dominant source of CHOCHO and HCHO in most of the world. We use aircraft observations of CHOCHO and HCHO from the SENEX campaign over the southeast US in summer 2013 to better understand the CHOCHO time-dependent yield from isoprene oxidation, its dependence on nitrogen oxides (NOx ≡ NO + NO2), the behavior of the CHOCHO-HCHO relationship, the quality of OMI CHOCHO satellite observations, and the implications for using CHOCHO observations from space as constraints on isoprene emissions. We simulate the SENEX and OMI observations with the Goddard Earth Observing System chemical transport model (GEOS-Chem) featuring a new chemical mechanism for CHOCHO formation from isoprene. The mechanism includes prompt CHOCHO formation under low-NOx conditions following the isomerization of the isoprene peroxy radical (ISOPO2). The SENEX observations provide support for this prompt CHOCHO formation pathway, and are generally consistent with the GEOS-Chem mechanism. Boundary layer CHOCHO and HCHO are strongly correlated in the observations and the model, with some departure under low-NOx conditions due to prompt CHOCHO formation. SENEX vertical profiles indicate a free-tropospheric CHOCHO background that is absent from the model. The OMI CHOCHO data provide some support for this free-tropospheric background and show southeast US enhancements consistent with the isoprene source but a factor of 2 too low. Part of this OMI bias is due to excessive surface reflectivities assumed in the retrieval. The OMI CHOCHO and HCHO seasonal data over the southeast US are tightly correlated and provide redundant proxies of isoprene emissions. Higher temporal resolution in future geostationary satellite observations may enable detection of the prompt CHOCHO production under low-NOx conditions apparent in the SENEX data. </P>

Meeting Report: Translational Advances in Cancer Prevention Agent Development Meeting

Mark Steven Miller,Peter J. Allen,Powel H. Brown,Andrew T. Chan,Margie L. Clapper,Roderick H. Dashwood,Shadmehr Demehri,Mary L. Disis,Raymond N. DuBois,Robert J. Glynn,Thomas W. Kensler,Seema A. Khan 대한암예방학회 2021 Journal of cancer prevention Vol.26 No.1

The Division of Cancer Prevention of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the Office of Disease Prevention of the National Institutes of Health co-sponsored the Translational Advances in Cancer Prevention Agent Development Meeting on August 27 to 28, 2020. The goals of this meeting were to foster the exchange of ideas and stimulate new collaborative interactions among leading cancer prevention researchers from basic and clinical research; highlight new and emerging trends in immunoprevention and chemoprevention as well as new information from clinical trials; and provide information to the extramural research community on the significant resources available from the NCI to promote prevention agent development and rapid translation to clinical trials. The meeting included two plenary talks and five sessions covering the range from pre-clinical studies with chemo/immunopreventive agents to ongoing cancer prevention clinical trials. In addition, two NCI informational sessions describing contract resources for the preclinical agent development and cooperative grants for the Cancer Prevention Clinical Trials Network were also presented.

Potential role of microbial pathogens in control of red palm weevil (Rhynchophorus ferrugineus) ‐ A Review

Muhammad Yasin,Waqas Wakil,Hamadttu A.F. EL-SHAFIE,Geoffrey O. BEDFORD,Thomas A. Miller 한국곤충학회 2017 Entomological Research Vol.47 No.4

The invasive Red Palm Weevil (RPW), Rhynchophorus ferrugineus (Olivier) (Coleoptera: Curculionidae), is one of the most destructive pests of ornamental and economically important palms globally. It has been found in 50 % of date‐growing and 15 % of coconut‐producing countries in the world. Synthetic organic insecticides have been the default method to combat this pest, but they are clearly inefficient due to the secretive nature of the insect and there is concern about non‐target effects from blanket spraying. For this reason, there is increasing interest in biological control methods such as the possible use of microbial entomopathogens, which might be incorporated into IPM approaches. In this review we summarize research work on microbial control agents, their effectiveness against RPW and their integration with other control measures.

Global variation in the piggyBac-like element of pink bollworm, Pectinophora gossypiella

Jianjun Wang,Gregory S. Simmons,Thomas A. Miller,Bruce E. Tabashnik,Yoonseong PARK 한국응용곤충학회 2011 Journal of Asia-Pacific Entomology Vol.14 No.1

The piggyBac transposable element, originally discovered in the cabbage looper, Trichoplusia ni, has been used widely in genetic engineering of insects including the pink bollworm, Pectinophora gossypiella, a major lepidopteran pest of cotton. Previously, we identified an intact copy of a piggyBac-like element (PLE) in pink bollworm, designated as PgPLE1.1. Here we report global variation in the occurrence and sequence of PgPLE1.1and its flanking sequences. Low to high frequency of the PgPLE1.1 insertion was observed in populations from USA, Mexico, China, India, and Israel, while there is no PgPLE1.1 insertion in the populations from Australia. Investigation of the five haplotypes of PgPLE1.1, their frequency, and the flanking sequences of PgPLE1.1revealed significant differences of the populations from Australia and China compared to other global populations, although recent occurrences of extensive gene flows among global populations were evident.

Analysis of the bacterial community in glassy-winged sharpshooter heads

Paulo Teixeira LACAVA,Jennifer PARKER,Fernando Dini ANDREOTE,Francisco DINI-ANDREOTE,José Luiz. RAMIREZ,Thomas A. MILLER 한국곤충학회 2007 Entomological Research Vol.37 No.4

The glassy-winged sharpshooter (GWSS), Homalodisca vitripennis, is an important vector of various strains of Xylella fastidiosa, which cause disease in a variety of economically important plants. These diseases include citrus variegated chlorosis, oleander leaf scorch and Pierce’'s Disease of grapevines. Symbiotic control (SC) is a new strategy that uses symbiotic endophytes as biological control agents to antagonize or displace the pathogenic strains of X. fastidiosa. Candidate endophytes for use in SC must occupy the xylem of host plants and attach to the pre-cibarium and cibarium of sharpshooter insects in order to have access to the pathogen. The study of the bacterial community of GWSS heads by isolation and denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) revealed the presence of species that may be suitable for use in SC. In addition, the results indicated that two important factors, insect age and choice of host plant, affect the composition of the bacterial community in GWSS heads. The main bacterial genera isolated as colonizers of GWSS heads were identified, using partial 16S rRNA gene sequencing, as Bacillus, Pseudomonas, Pedobacter and Methylobacterium, as well as the species Curtobacterium flaccumfaciens. DGGE patterns revealed a diversity of endophytic species able to colonize the GWSS head. The main genera isolated in culture were also identified using this technique. Principal component analysis (PCA) from polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-DGGE patterns indicated that the bacteria inhabiting the GWSS head are similar to those found as endophytes inside the host plants, and that insect developmental stage and preferential feeding on one host plant species over another are important factors in determining the composition of the bacterial community in the GWSS head. However, a shift in host plants for a small period of time did not cause changes in the compositions of these communities.