BATON ROUGE — Symbiotic relationships come in many harmless forms throughout nature: clownfish and anemones, whales and barnacles, and bees and flowers to name a few.
Two LSU AgCenter scientists are studying how to use symbiosis to potentially control a dangerous pest that is anything but harmless — the New World screwworm.
AgCenter entomologists Honglin Feng and Kristen Healy recently were awarded a U.S. Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service grant totaling $691,000 to conduct research focusing on engineered microbial symbionts that express lethal double-stranded RNA to control the New World screwworm (Cochliomyia hominivorax). The hope is to strengthen protection of livestock and wildlife and enhance U.S. preparedness against the pest’s recent reemergence…