
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, May 16, 1990                   TAG: 9005160371
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A2   EDITION: STATE 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: ANNAPOLIS, MD.                                LENGTH: Short

PLANT `VACCINE' KILLS PESTS, SCIENTISTS SAY

Researchers have developed a kind of vaccine that protects plants against pests by putting a natural pesticide into seeds.

The "vaccine" involves the insertion of bacteria called endophytes into a plant's seeds. The bacteria have been genetically engineered to carry a naturally occurring protein that kills insects, said Peter S. Carlson, the vaccine's developer.

As the plant grows, the bacteria spread the protein throughout the plant, he said Tuesday at a Rockefeller Foundation seminar on agricultural research.

The technique was developed as a means of reducing reliance on dangerous pesticides, Carlson said.

Carlson, who founded Crop Genetics International in Hanover to produce the plant vaccine, has completed two years of field tests of corn that had been vaccinated to protect it against the European corn borer.

This pest, a tiny caterpillar, destroys $500 million worth of corn per year in the United States, said Carlson.

The vaccine has proven to be safe.

by CNB