SBIR-STTR Award

Among the persistent threats to US agriculture the development of resistance against methods to control pest populations ranks high. Polyphagous insects such as the corn earworm (Helicoverpazea) evolve these problematic resistance traits with particular rapidity and entire classes of insecticides are already ineffectual against H. zea. Most worrisome is the rise of resistance against Bt toxins as transgenic crops expressing these toxins are not only lucrative for the agricultural industry but condition the food security for society as a whole. It is clear that new agents to combat Bt resistance are desperately needed. Lepidext has identified one such agent: ourtechnology is a strain of a sterilizing virus Hz-NV2 which we hypothesize will be a viable biocontrol agent to manage outbreaks of Bt-resistant H. zea. This technology has advantages over alternate approaches to population control such as sterile insect technique and conventional pesticide application and can be combined with IPM approaches such as refugia to retard the proliferation of resistance. The goal of this proposal is to validate this hypothesis with the following objectives: 1) perform experiments in our lab and insect rearing facility to assess the utility of our technology to suppress Bt resistance in H. zea populations; 2) develop a statistical model to simulate the application of Hz-NV2 to suppress Bt-resistant H. zea in the field. Together these objectives are critical to reach proof of concept that our technology can suppress H.zea outbreaks of Bt resistance in mixed populations of resistant and susceptible insects.