Pesticides that target only disease-vectors and not beneficial pollinating insects could be the outcome of a new genome-sequencing initiative, the BBC reports.
The 5000 Insect and Other Arthropod Genome initiative, initiated by scientists from several important public and private research institutes from the US and the UK, aims to sequence the genomes of 5000 insects and other arthropods primarily to identify the genes that allow certain insects to carry and transmit human and plant diseases.
Leaders of the initiative are calling on the scientific community to nominate species of interest for sequencing and get involved in the effort to sort the good bug genes from the bad.
