ISCA TECHNOLOGIES, INC. — Department of Agriculture SBIR Phase II: 8.800000000000001

Description

This project aims to revolutionize the production of synthetic insect pheromones to controlagricultural pests by using transgenic Camelina sativa plants to "grow" pheromone precursors.ISCA Technologies expects this innovation to eliminate the need for petroleum-based and otherlong hydrocarbon feedstocks and slash costs for pheromone synthesis making sustainableenvironmentally safe pheromone pest control tools economically feasible for a much wider arrayof crops. For decades pheromones have been proven to be effective controls for many of theworld's most damaging arthropod pests. These naturally occurring compounds can be used toprotect crops by manipulating pest behaviors such as by preventing them from mating repellingthem from crops or attracting them to traps or killing agents. Pheromones are nontoxic typicallyaffect only the targeted pest species leave no harmful residues on food produce cause little or noenvironmental pollution and are far less prone to pest resistance. Adoption of pheromones for pestmanagement however has been limited to high-value niche specialty crops because of the highcost of conventional pheromone synthesis: the price of active ingredients (AIs) of pheromonetypically range from $1000-3500 per kg resulting in field formulation prices well beyond theviable price range for growers of lower-value-per-acre row crops such as corn soybean wheatrice and cotton. The high costs pheromone controls stem from the complex organic chemistrysynthesis processes used to create them in which relatively expensive petroleum-based and plantoil chemicals are used as feedstock for the building-block hydrocarbon chains. These chemical- based manufacturing processes also create toxic waste which in turn creates pollution and highdisposal costs. This project aims to reduce the cost of pheromone AI production to below $100/kgadvancing on our Phase I breakthrough research during which together with our collaboratorswe successfully genetically modified (GM) an easy-to-grow line of C. sativa plants—a speciesused to produce biofuel—to in effect "grow" the chemical precursors of various insectpheromones which are expressed and retained in the seed oil cells. Extraction of this oil allows usto start pheromone synthesis from the last steps of the conventional synthetic process completelyreplacing all oil feedstocks used in current chemical synthetic routes and eliminating costly stepsas well as solvents and toxic waste. This technology also creates a new source of revenue for USagriculture. Fueled by photosynthesis Camelina plants express specific insect enzymes that buildthe carbon chains resulting in the precursor of the target insect pheromone which then only needsto have the functional group changed to become the high-purity pheromone needed for pest controlapplications. In Phase I the first generations of the transgenic Camelina plants were moved fromthe greenhouse to the field and harvested seeds were found to contain 30-40% seed oil by weightwith the target precursor making about 20-25% of the volume of the oil. The tasks for this projectare: 1) Cultivate successive generations of the genetic line in order to harvest larger amounts ofseed during 2020 and 2021 growing seasons. 2) Explore and develop methods to extract the oilfrom Camelina seeds harvested in 2019 and 2020 in small batches. 3). Explore and test availablemethods to distill remove and/or purify the desired pheromone precursors from the Camelina seedoil. 4) Incorporate Camelina-derived AIs into our controlled-release matrix SpecializedPheromone & Lure Application Technology (SPLAT) which is made from safe biodegradablefood.