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A new technology in which insects are used to genetically modify crops could be converted into a dangerous, if not illegal, biological weapon, according to a report from the Forum on Science Policy released today. Naturally, the organization responsible for research claims to do nothing of the sort.
The report follows an ongoing research program funded by DARPA (US Advanced Defense Research Agency). Nicknamed "Allied Insects", the idea is to create more resilient crops to help farmers cope with climate change, drought, frost, flood, salinity and disease. But instead of modifying the seeds in a laboratory, farmers have sent fleets of insects into their crops, where genetically modified insects would do their job, "infecting" the plants with a special virus that transmits new genes to resilience.
If you think it sounds scary, you are not alone. Lead author of the new Science Policy Forum report, Richard Guy Reeves of the Department of Evolutionary Genetics of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology, Plön, said the Insect Allies program is a troubling example of research to dual use in which the DARPA In addition to helping farmers, also works on a potential weapon. When contacted by Gizmodo, DARPA denied the charges in the new report, claiming that it was filled with inaccuracies and misleading descriptions.
The technology at the heart of this research could herald a whole new way of genetically modifying crops. Instead of waiting for one plant to pass on its newly acquired characteristics to the next generation, genetic modifications would be imposed on living organisms, a process known as horizontal genetic alteration. Hence the name of this technology: Horizontal Environmental Genetic Modification Agents, or HEGAA.
For HEGAA to work, a genetic modification developed in the laboratory must be inserted into the chromosome of a target organism. And that's where insects come in. The system would use genetically engineered leafhoppers, whiteflies and aphids in the lab using CRISPR, or another gene editing system, to transmit infectious virus to pre-existing cultures. . Each plant would be infected with a transgene, triggering the desired gain in function, such as increased resistance to drought or frost.
Insects Allies was announced in November 2016 and currently involves research contracts over $ 27 million. DARPA funds four teams (not three, as stated in the report), namely the Boyce Thompson Institute, Ohio State University, Pennsylvania State University and the University of Texas, Austin. The defense agency maintains that "all work is done in closed laboratories, greenhouses or other secure facilities" and that insects will have an integrated shelf life to limit their spread. DARPA hopes that testing will be done in greenhouses in just two years, with maize being a high priority crop.
Needless to say, there are concerns about how this technology could be used, particularly with regard to its main funder, DARPA, and by extension, the Pentagon.
"We believe that the knowledge to be gained from this program seems very limited in its ability to improve US agriculture or to deal with national emergencies," write the authors in the new policy forum. Instead, they say, "the program can be widely seen as an effort to develop biological agents for hostile purposes and their vectors, which, if true, would constitute a violation of the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) ".
Reeves and colleagues dispute the use of insects as a vehicle for genetic improvement This is a very bad idea because they can not be controlled, and it would be safer to apply overhead sprays to deliver HEGAAs. DARPA, on the other hand, claims that insects are the only practical solution, as surface spraying of HEGAAs would require an infrastructure not available to farmers.
The Political Forum article also discusses how genetically modified and infected transgenic food crops could potentially be made available to domestic or international markets, and that there is no regulatory framework to manage it. .
But it is the secondary intention evoked by DARPA that raises the most serious problems: the use of HEGAAs as a defensive response to threats. As DARPA explained at the beginning of the project, let's highlight the following:
National security can be quickly compromised by natural threats to the cropping system, including pathogens, drought, floods and frost, especially by threats introduced by state or non-state actors. Allied insects seek to mitigate the impact of these incursions by applying targeted treatments to mature plants, the effects of which are expressed at appropriate time scales, ie during a single growing season. Such unprecedented capacity would provide an urgent alternative to pesticides, selective breeding, slash and burn, and quarantine, often ineffective in dealing with emerging threats and failing to secure mature plants.
The authors of the new report interpret this as "an intention to develop a means of delivering HEGAAs for offensive purposes", for example by engaging in biological warfare. The authors argue that the introduction of this technology would herald the advent of a whole new category of biological weapons, hived off by insects, that can be used to introduce various deleterious features. The authors warn that this technology could motivate rival countries to develop similar programs.
In response to a question from Gizmodo, a spokesman for DARPA said that he welcomed the academic dialogue on the Insect Allies program, but that the agency rejects the conclusion of the political forum document, claiming that she is "misleading and strewn with inaccuracies". The spokesman added:
We also want the researchers to have contacted DARPA at any time to request information about the program. Insects Allies is a basic research program in which research is conducted by teams led by universities or affiliates. These researchers are free to publish their findings and encouraged to discuss their research and engage regulators to advance science in the most responsible and productive way possible. If DARPA had been contacted for information, we would have gladly provided it. In addition … there is a lot of information about the program already available to the public.
Blake Bextine, head of the DARPA program for Allied insects, rejects many of the allegations made in the report of the political forum.
"DARPA does not manufacture biological weapons and we reject the hypothetical scenario," said Bextine to Gizmodo. "We accept and accept concerns about the potential dual use of technology, a problem that affects virtually all powerful new technologies. It is precisely for these reasons that we have structured the Insect Allies program as we have done, as a transparent, fundamental research effort led by a university, with the active participation of regulators and ethicists and academics. 'proactive communication with decision makers. "
The goal of allied insects, he says, is to prepare for the unpredictability of emerging or rapidly evolving threats to US agriculture. With respect to the potential environmental impacts of HEGAAs, Bextine stated that DARPA and its associates are exercising due diligence.
"DARPA is extremely sensitive to environmental risks and untargeted effects and has structured the Insect Allies program to identify and mitigate them," he said. "DARPA has imposed multiple levels of biosecurity and biosecurity at every stage of the program."
If DARPA's collaborators succeed in their projects, they will have developed work-enhancing treatments that can be delivered to "good factories" and "good tissue," he said. According to Bextine, these traits will be expressed for a limited time, after which the plants will return to their original state. In addition, insects could be designed to die after one day.
At the same time, he says, the specificity of the Insect Allies system contrasts with advanced technologies to respond to threats to agriculture.
"For example, sprayed pesticides blow in other areas, seep into the groundwater and may affect more than the target," Gizmodo told Bextine. "When it comes to mature plants such as citrus, the only effective way to stop the spread of a threat is often to destroy plants using slash-and-burn techniques within a radius." given."
Jason Delborne, an associate professor at North Carolina State University, an expert in genetic engineering and its potential environmental, economic and social consequences, said the concerns seemed "appropriate".
"The social, ethical, political and ecological implications of HEGAA's production are important and deserve the same level of attention as the exploration of the science that underlies potential technology," Delborne told Gizmodo. . "The authors convincingly argue that the specification of insects as the preferred distribution mechanism for HEGAA is poorly justified by visions of agricultural applications. The infrastructure and skills required to spray agricultural fields – at least in the US context – are well established and this implementation mechanism would better control the potential spread of a HEGAA. "
There is no doubt that the implications of this pending biotechnology are vast. The authors may overestimate the intentions of DARPA, but the ultimate message of this report is heard loud and clear: HEGGAs could be very dangerous.
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