The United States currently imports castor oil from foreign countries. ARS will prepare derivatives from lesquerella oil and its fatty acids. International Flora will develop applications for the cosmetic and personal care industry. With Monsanto Agricultural Company of St. Louis, MO, to evaluate the commercial potential of genetically arming cotton plants to fight off bollworms, tobacco budworms and other caterpillar pests. If the plants pass muster on cotton yield, lint quality and other traits, growers could get a new alternative to insecticides.
Caterpillars cost cotton growers millions of dollars annually in chemical controls and lost yield.
Monsanto scientists armed cotton plants with pest-fighting genes from the natural soil bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis , or Bt. These genes produce proteins that cause caterpillars to stop feeding on the plants and eventually starve. ARS scientists earlier tested plants having one Bt gene. With Mycotech Corp. of Butte, MT, to fine-tune production techniques and conduct field trials on a new environmentally friendly fungal agent that kills the sweetpotato whitefly, also known as the silverleaf whitefly. An ARS fermentation process will be used to produce quantities of the fungal agent.