Researchers from 14 countries collaborated on the genetic sequencing of a pest insect that plagues grain producers across the planet.
The red flour beetle is one of three main pests that invade stored grain, causing damage and creating opportunities for heating to occur.
It, along with the rusty grain beetle, the lesser grain borer and in the U.S., the rice weevil, affect storage of more than 2.4 billion bushels of North American wheat annually.
The United States Department of Agriculture estimates that each year these insects are responsible for more $500 million in North American losses and treatment costs.
Read Also
VIDEO: Green Lightning and Nytro Ag win sustainability innovation award
Nytro Ag Corp and Green Lightning recieved an innovation award at Ag in Motion 2025 for the Green Lightning Nitrogen Machine, which converts atmospheric nitrogen into a plant-usable form.
The beetle, known as Tribolium castaneum, joins the ever growing list of more than 800 organisms, including cows, chickens, honeybees, dogs, mosquitoes, humans and a variety of plants, that have had their genes mapped.
This allows researchers to develop new control methods for the insect that avoid or reduce the need for toxic insecticides that can injure other organisms.
“The red flour beetle is a major problem to the North American food industry because it can be found at all stages of the pipeline from grain storage to milling plants to bakeries. Even the cereal in your cupboard is at risk,” said Reno Pontarollo, chief science officer for Genome Prairie.
Genome Prairie is a Saskatchewan and Manitoba based non-profit organization that invests in and develops research projects in the life science sector, including agriculture.
“Conventional management techniques like sanitation in the entire process and minimizing kernel damage and moisture are effective, but insecticides that leave undesired residues are required for larger infestations,” he said.
Pontarollo said the beetle is one of several pests that have a detrimental effect on food security.
“In Canada it is on the same radar screen as head blight. The fungus causing head blight, Fusarium graminearum, was sequenced in 2007 by a global team that included Canadian scientists. Since then we have seen a significant increase in research activity to control head blight. We can expect the same phenomenon to occur in (beetle) research,” he said.
The red flour beetle is the first significant agricultural pest to have its genome sequenced and the first beetle, said a USDA researcher who worked on the project. That highlights the economic importance of the insect, said Dick Beeman in Manhattan, Kansas.
“I’m hopeful that this is a step in creating new ways to control this pest’s raids on the world’s granaries.”
Beeman said the sequence in itself won’t solve the issue of red flour beetle damage and inventory losses, but it will give researchers the opportunity to use genomics tools to discover the insect’s weaknesses and find ways to control it.
One of those methods may be a Beeman discovery.
His lab recently found a gene that is unique to the insect. The mother insect passes it on; if any of her progeny don’t have it they die. Thus, the gene has a guaranteed future and spreads readily in red flour beetle populations. It is a unique gene among invertebrates.
Beeman believes the gene may be a useful vehicle onto which researchers may place hitchhiker genes.
Genetic profiles of the insect could also be used to track different populations from farm to port and beyond.
