Breeding plants (or animals) for resistance to insects is really just another form of biological pest control. Rather than finding insects to attack the pests, breeders look for genetic traits (or combinations of traits) that reduce an organism's susceptibility to attack or injury by its insect pests.
More aboutThe French Grape Crisis This idea was first tested in the 1870's by C. V. Riley, an entomologist who successfully fought a French outbreak of phylloxera (an aphid-like pest of grapes) with resistant North American rootstocks. Indeed, much of the pioneering work in this field has been done with crop plants because they are usually cheaper to breed and easier to manage than livestock. Recent innovations in genetic engineering, however, are likely to accelerate development of resistant genotypes in poultry, swine, and other commercial livestock.
More aboutThe French Grape Crisis This idea was first tested in the 1870's by C. V. Riley, an entomologist who successfully fought a French outbreak of phylloxera (an aphid-like pest of grapes) with resistant North American rootstocks. Indeed, much of the pioneering work in this field has been done with crop plants because they are usually cheaper to breed and easier to manage than livestock. Recent innovations in genetic engineering, however, are likely to accelerate development of resistant genotypes in poultry, swine, and other commercial livestock.
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