Syngenta Thrive - 3Q/2013 - 19

Listen to an interview on
Enogen trait technology.

Watch video on water optimization.
Watch video on rootworm control.

“Game-changing”

is a term that often punctuates discussions about
the most recent trait offerings from Syngenta—and
for good reason. These traits, including Agrisure
Duracade™, Agrisure Artesian® and Enogen®, are
enabling farmers to grow more corn, while bolstering
the company’s leadership position in corn insect
control, water optimization and energy solutions.
Combating the destructive corn rootworm,
providing season-long drought protection and
improving the efﬁciency of dry-grind ethanol
production are among the many beneﬁts of these
traits. And behind each technology is a series of
breakthrough moments for the scientists and
product leads who helped bring it to growers.

65,000
More than

acres of Enogen corn
will be planted by
growers in 2013.

RESOURCE DIRECTORY

PHOTO: SYNGENTA

Battling the Billion-Dollar Bug
Hope Hart, team leader for the product safety
group at Syngenta, remembers her game-changing
moment vividly, when years of research in the lab
were validated in a corn rootworm–infested ﬁeld
near Bloomington, Ill. After shaking a stalk of the
control corn plant, Hart, who was a scientist in the
insect control group at the time, watched as it fell
listlessly to the ground. “All the roots had been
chewed away,” she says. But the stalk of corn with
the Agrisure Duracade trait, containing the active
protein Hart helped discover, held ﬁrm.
It was in 1999 when Hart, together with the
Syngenta biostress traits group led by Eric Chen,
Ph.D., began experimenting with the active protein
(mCry3A) in the ﬁrst-generation corn rootworm trait
from Syngenta (Agrisure® RW) to determine if it
could be effective against additional pests. What
the team found instead was a unique protein,
eCry3.1Ab. And while it wasn’t effective against the
broader spectrum of pests the team initially hoped
to target, it proved to be extremely effective against
corn rootworm in a different manner than the
mCry3A protein. When the larva ingests the
Agrisure Duracade corn, the eCry3.1Ab protein in
the corn cells binds to speciﬁc protein receptors in
the gut of the larva, resulting in the formation of a
hole in the insect’s gut membrane.
Even though its larvae are microscopic, the
corn rootworm is the most destructive insect in the
history of U.S. corn production. Its remarkable
adaptability has amazed scientists—and frustrated
growers. Management practices once considered

3Q/13 · thrive · 17
Syngenta Thrive - 3Q/2013

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