UK research agency funds biotechnology projects to aid wildlife climate adaptation

The short version

• Fourteen projects to help species adapt to climate change and disease are sharing an initial £30 million from the UK invention agency.[The Guardian]
• Proposals include gene-editing swallowtail butterflies for insecticide resistance, accelerating oak reproduction cycles, and vaccinating ash trees with RNA.[The Guardian]
• No experimental solutions are slated for release into the wild before the programme finishes in 2030, with all current research restricted to secure laboratories.[The Guardian]
• Skeptics argue the interventions will likely have only modest, hard-to-measure impacts on biodiversity loss alongside existing agency controversies.[The Guardian]

Key facts

• The UK's Advanced Research and Invention Agency is funding 14 biotechnology projects to help species adapt to climate and pathogen threats.[The Guardian]
• The programme allocates an initial £30 million across two years, with another £24 million earmarked for projects that prove successful.[The Guardian]
• Funded initiatives include CRISPR-Cas9 editing of swallowtail butterflies for insecticide resistance and modifying oak genes to shorten reproductive cycles to months.[The Guardian]
• Another project seeks to combat ash dieback by injecting ash trees with RNA molecules to hinder fungal infection.[The Guardian]
• All experimental work will remain in secure laboratories until the initiative concludes in 2030, with no organisms released into the wild.[The Guardian]

Sources

Outlet counts describe coverage, not independent confirmation. Reports may share a wire service or original source.

• Tree vaccines and gene-edited butterflies among biotechnology projects funded by UK ‘invention agency’The Guardian - Science