Modern Ag Technology Takes New Aim at Glassy-Winged Sharpshooter

By UC Riverside News|May 3, 2022

Scientists at UC Riverside have a shot at eradicating a deadly threat to vineyards posed by the glassy-winged sharpshooter, just as its resistance to insecticide has been growing.

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Glassy-winged sharpshooter on leaf.

(Photo: Regents of the University of California)
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Glassy-winged sharpshooter in California. This map provides detail and potential of the pest's spread.

(Credit: California Dept. of Food and Agriculture)
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Side view of a glassy-winged sharpshooter.

(Photo: California Dept. of Food and Agriculture)
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Underneath look at a glassy-winged sharpshooter.

(Photo: California Dept. of Food and Agriculture)
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Perspective of adult glassy-winged sharpshooter in hand.

(Photo: California Dept. of Food and Agriculture)
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Glassy-winged sharpshooter egg mass on a leaf.

(Photo: California Dept. of Food and Agriculture)
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Glassy-winged sharpshooter on yellow sticky panel trap.

(Photo: California Dept. of Food and Agriculture)

When the half-inch-long flying insect feeds on grapevines, it transmits bacteria that causes Pierce’s Disease. Once infected, a vine is likely to die within three years — a growing problem for California’s $58 billion wine industry. Currently, it can only be controlled with quarantines and increasingly less effective chemical sprays.

For this project, the researchers used CRISPR technology to knock out genes controlling the sharpshooters’ eye color. In one experiment, they turned the insects’ eyes white. In another, the eyes turned cinnabar, a blood-red color. Then, the team demonstrated these eye color changes were permanent, passed along to the offspring of the modified parents.

Scientists at UC Riverside demonstrated that this technology can make permanent physical changes in the insect. They also showed these changes were passed down to three or more generations of insects.

For more on the high-tech fight against the glassy-winged sharpshooter, continue reading at news.ucr.edu.