Award details

Crop protection against aphids with plant defence activators

Reference	BB/X011844/1
Principal Investigator / Supervisor	Professor Toby Bruce
Co-Investigators / Co-Supervisors
Institution	Keele University
Department	Faculty of Natural Sciences
Funding type	Research
Value (£)	50,195
Status	Current
Type	Research Grant
Start date	01/03/2023
End date	31/08/2023
Duration	6 months

Abstract

Plant defence activators offer a promising approach for crop protection - they act by switching on or "inducing" plant defence pathways. Our data with the plant defence activator cis-jasmone show that it can: 1) reduce aphid settlement and population growth rate in experiments where plants are exposed to aphids in the absence of natural enemies. 2) make plants more attractive to natural enemies of pests, in particular parasitoid wasps, which can provide effective biological control. Such treatments could allow environmentally friendly crop protection and tools for integrated pest management (IPM). However, more needs to be learnt about plant defence activator performance against aphids under realistic field conditions and across different crop genotypes. This project will bring together research and agronomy teams to answer questions relating to the effectiveness and consistency of performance of plant activators in the field. It will compare field performance of different plant activator treatments (cis-jasmone, AGRII101, AGRII202) with each other as well as with untreated control plots and plots treated with a standard pyrethroid insecticide. We will investigate the effect of crop genotype on responsiveness to induction with plant defence activators because different varieties can have different capacity for inducing defence. Six different, genetically diverse but commercially relevant wheat varieties will be tested. The project will engage in dialogue with regulators to share data, improve understanding and discuss how to facilitate approval of plant defence activators with their non-toxic and environmentally friendly mode of action. Data and evidence from the project will inform agronomists on performance of plant activators and how to maximise performance by selection of activator and plant variety while also engaging with regulators to help gain approval for the treatments.

Summary

Our project is designed to facilitate the practical development of plant defence activators, such as cis-jasmone, as novel crop protection treatments for use against aphids. Earlier research has shown that cis-jasmone treatment can significantly reduce aphid infestations in the field and that treated plants become repellent to aphids while also becoming more attractive to natural enemies of pests. Plant defence activators have the advantage of having a non-toxic mode of action. They work by switching on (inducing) defence in plants and could provide new, environmentally friendly crop protection options. Farmers urgently need new options as conventional pesticide use is increasingly restricted by changes in legislation and compromised by evolution of resistance. Plant defence activators are: * environmentally friendly * work with not against natural enemies of pests * provide new interventions farmers can use against pests * form part of integrated pest management (IPM) * can be used against insecticide resistant pests Here, we will make the next steps towards commercialisation of plant defence activator treatments. We have discussed with Agrii, a leading UK agronomy company, the research that would be needed. Wheat is their preferred crop for initial trials due to the large area it is grown in and also because our earlier field trials have already shown cis-jasmone can reduce aphid populations in wheat. Agrii have other potential plant defence activators (AGRII101, AGRII202) they would like to test alongside cis-jasmone in order to compare performance. Our project will therefore conduct field trials comparing different plant defence activator treatments with each other as well as with untreated control plots and plots treated with a standard pyrethroid insecticide. We will test the performance of plant activators with different wheat varieties because different varieties can have different capacity for inducing defence. Having tested efficacy under realistic conditions we will then explore with regulatory authorities how to obtain regulatory approval for for plant activators. The benefits listed above mean a strong case can be made for regulatory approval and we will include dialogue with regulators as a project objective.

Committee	Not funded via Committee
Research Topics	X – not assigned to a current Research Topic
Research Priority	X – Research Priority information not available
Research Initiative	Crop pest and diseases partnerships [2022]
Funding Scheme	X – not Funded via a specific Funding Scheme

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