Newly Sequenced Termite Genome May Uncover New Pest Control Measures

Know your enemy: This phrase is truer than ever when it comes to pest control. Now, scientists have learned a bit more about a voracious insect, sequencing its genome to uncover new genetic targets for pest control; they've studied the termite.

"The termite genome reveals many unique genetic targets that can be disrupted for better termite control," said Michael Scharf, one of the researchers, in a news release. "Depending on which gene or protein that is targeted, we could disrupt termites' neurological processes, molting digestive factors or cuticle formation. We're just limited by our imagination."

The termite in question is the Nevada dampwood termite. While these termites don't cause significant damage to buildings, they are closely related to other pests that do cause damage, such as the eastern subterranean termite. Termites in general can cost an estimated $40 billion in damage and control treatment each year; it's not surprising that scientists want to learn more about them in order to devise better controls.

"While current pesticides are very effective products, the problem is that you're injecting large volumes of them into the soil around the house," said Scharf in a news release. "It would be nice to move to a greener technology, and that's what the genome sequence could enable us to do. With termites, you don't have to impact all of them. Targeting just a fraction of the workers could cause an entire colony to collapse."

The researchers point out that by knowing the termite genome, gene silencing could be an option to cull the pests. Gene silencing would target termite RNA to reduce the expression of critical genes, and thus knock out the insects.

Sequencing the genome doesn't only help researchers learn new walls to battle the pests, though. It could also help scientists better understand the symbiosis between termites and the more than 4,000 species of bacteria that thrive in their guts, which aid in everything from digestion to defense.

"The genome provides a well-defined roadmap that could help us find the right cocktail of enzymes to break wood down into its simple sugars," said Scharf in a news release. "It takes a lot of the guesswork out."

The findings are published in the journal Nature Communications.