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Patent Awarded for Engineered Soybean to Control Parasite

Soybean field (ARS/USDA)
Soybean field (Agricultural Research Service/USDA)

A Kansas State University research team in Manhattan, Kansas received a patent for a genetically engineered soybean plant that aims to control a devastating parasite causing millions of dollars in crop damage each year.

The engineered soybean plant was developed by four current or former K-State faculty: Harold Trick, Timothy Todd, Michael Herman, and Judith Roe. The team took on the soybean cyst nematode, a destructive parasite that attacks the roots of soybean plants (pictured right). The team says farmers across the country lose nearly $860 million every year because of the nematode.

Through genetic engineering, the team developed soybean plants with specific traits. When nematodes feed on the roots they ingest these traits that turn off specific nematode genes. The research targeted three genes: major sperm protein, which causes nematode sperm to move; chitin synthase, the gene that helps form the eggshell on nematode offspring; and RNA polymerase II, which is vital for RNA production.

By controlling these three genes, researchers were able to halt the reproduction of the nematodes and saw a 68 to 70 percent reduction in the presence of soybean cyst nematode. The team was also careful to prevent any negative unintended effects, or ways that the altered genes could negatively affect the soybeans or animals and humans who ingest the soybeans.

Related: Agricultural Gene Technology Licensed to Dow Chemical

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