Syllabus: GS3/Science and Technology
Context
- Researchers have shown that it’s possible to manipulate pheromones released by locusts to prevent them from swarming or engaging in group behaviour that leads to the feeding frenzy.
About
- Locust swarms have historically caused massive damage to agriculture across regions.
- They collect in large swarms and eat through thousands of hectares of crops in a matter of days.
- The 2019–2020 outbreak in East Africa, Pakistan, and India was the worst in 25 years.
- Traditional control methods use synthetic pesticides, which harm the environment, soil health, and food security.
- Thus finding suitable, eco-friendly alternatives to pesticides has been an active area of research.
| Locusts – Locusts are the short-horned grasshoppers with highly migratory habits. – Locusts can change from a solitary phase to a gregarious phase, where they form dense swarms that can travel hundreds of kilometers in search of food. – Only four species viz. Desert locust (Schistocerca gregaria), Migratory locust (Locusta migratoria), Bombay Locust ( Nomadacris succincta) and Tree locust (Anacridium sp.) are found in India. 1. The desert locust is the most important pest species in India as well as in intercontinental context. – Concern: They cause great devastation to natural and cultivated vegetation leading to national emergency of food and fodder. |
Gregariousness Behaviour
- Several animal, bird, and insect species — including locusts — exhibit a social behaviour called gregariousness.
- It helps them form societies in which large numbers of individuals work together, instead of competing, in order to survive.
- Scientists have identified a pheromone of interest, called 4-vinylanisole (4VA), in 2020.
- Pheromones are chemical substances secreted by an organism that elicit a social response in other members of the same species.
- After a locust eats food, it often emits large quantities of 4VA from its hind legs, it promptly begins to attract other members of the species when it’s released into the air.
- Other locusts nearby subsequently collect together and rub their hind legs against each other.
- This in turn triggers the release of serotonin, a neurotransmitter, which leads to swarming.
- In the new study, the researchers figured that preventing locusts from releasing 4VA could potentially prevent swarming, so they set to work on understanding its production.
Study also proposed a five-step locust control strategy
- Using synthetic or other 4VA substitutes to attract locusts to a trapping area, where they can be killed by fungal pathogens or pesticides at a small scale;
- Spraying 4VA to prevent aggregation;
- Monitoring population dynamics by tracking 4VA signatures;
- releasing genetically modified locusts into the field to establish non-gregarious populations;
- and using the combined strategy of small-molecule regulators in conjunction with biopesticides.
Source: TH
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