World's first RNAi biopesticide spray registered

The EPA has approved the registration of biopesticide products containing the new active ingredient Ledprona for a period of three years. Ledprona is a new type of pesticide that uses RNA interference (RNAi), a natural mechanism used by plants and animals to resist disease, to fight pests, and was developed by GreenLight Biosciences.

      Ledprona is a sprayable double-stranded ribonucleic acid (dsRNA) product designed to combat the Colorado potato beetle, a major potato pest in the United States, found in potato growing states of Colorado, Idaho, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, Oregon, Washington and Wisconsin. These beetles eat a lot of the leaves of the potato plant, and if they attack the crop during flowering, the plant may not produce potatoes (CPB).

Ledprona, an RNAI-based pesticide, is the world's first commercialized dsRNA pesticide that can be sprayed on plants. Colorado potato beetles are prone to developing resistance to chemical insecticides, and this sprayer dsRNA product kills the insect by "silencing" the beetle's gene for producing the PSMB5 protein, which is essential for the survival of these beetles, and does not involve genetically modified organisms.