Molecular approaches in insect pest management: relevance and reality^#

Molecular techniques have widely been used directly or indirectly for the management of insect pests across the World. Successful applications of these techniques have resulted in saving of time, efforts and money and have been widely accepted by the stakeholders in agricultural and allied sectors. Molecular tools are being increasingly used in fields of insect taxonomy, phylogeny, population structure analysis, plant-insect and insect-natural enemy interactions and improvement in sterile insect release and host- plant resistance breeding programmes. In addition, strain improvement of entomopathogenic microbes and natural enemies is also being done with molecular tools. Novel approaches using RNAi-mediated pest management tools are being developed. In this article, the research carried out on molecular approaches and its relevance to the management of insect pests with special reference to India is reviewed.