Life Sciences Commons^™

Insights From Population Genomics To Enhance And Sustain Biological Control Of Insect Pests, Arun Sethuraman, Fredric J. Janzen, David W. Weisrock, John J. Obrycki

Biology Faculty Publications

Biological control—the use of organisms (e.g., nematodes, arthropods, bacteria, fungi, viruses) for the suppression of insect pest species—is a well-established, ecologically sound and economically profitable tactic for crop protection. This approach has served as a sustainable solution for many insect pest problems for over a century in North America. However, all pest management tactics have associated risks. Specifically, the ecological non-target effects of biological control have been examined in numerous systems. In contrast, the need to understand the short- and long-term evolutionary consequences of human-mediated manipulation of biological control organisms for importation, augmentation and conservation biological control has only recently …