Australian researchers hope to insert plant and insect genes into crops to 'farm' industrial chemicals including super-lubricants, adhesives, sensors, antibacterials and stretch-Kevlar.

"We're expressing chemicals in plants that aren't normally there that could be extracted to provide something very valuable," says Dr Mike O'Shea of CSIRO Molecular and Health Technologies in Clayton.

O'Shea, who thinks this research is the first of its kind, and colleagues present their progress this week at the World Congress on Industrial Biotechnology and Bioprocessing in Chicago.

O'Shea says the genes would eventually be inserted into an oilseed crop like safflower to mass-produce new industrial chemicals that are currently only available in experimental quantities.

The new chemicals include fatty acids that can be polymerised to produce ultra-slippery lubricants, he says.