Award details

BBSRC Institute Career Path Fellowship: A genomic approach to understanding insecticide resistance in crop pests

Reference	BBS/E/C/00005056
Principal Investigator / Supervisor	Professor Linda Field
Co-Investigators / Co-Supervisors	Professor Christopher Bass
Institution	Rothamsted Research
Department	Rothamsted Research Department
Funding type	Research
Value (£)	89,987
Status	Completed
Type	Institute Project
Start date	01/09/2009
End date	31/08/2014
Duration	60 months

Abstract

The overall aim of this Fellowship is to apply state-of-the art post-genomic technologies to study insecticide resistance based on metabolic mechanisms in the important pest species, the peach potato aphid (Myzus persicae) and the brown planthopper (Nilaparvata lugens). Emphasis will be placed on resistance to neonicotinoid compounds, which are now the biggest selling class of insecticides worldwide. We will focus on cytochrome P450-dependent monooxygenases (P450s), since these enzymes have already been implicated in neonicotinoid resistance. However, the approaches can also be applied to other families of detoxifying enzymes (e.g. glutathione S-transferases and carboxylesterases) if appropriate. Specific objectives are to: 1) Establish where metabolism is responsible for resistance by demonstrating synergism of insecticide by the P450 inhibitor piperonyl butoxide. 2) Identify P450 genes in the insect pests using comparative genomic approaches (exploiting for example the recently sequenced pea aphid genome, and available EST libraries) and high-throughput transcriptome sequencing where there is no direct comparative genome resource (e.g. N. lugens). 3) Explore the level of transcription of the candidate P450 genes in resistant and susceptible insects using custom microarrays and/or quantitative reverse transcriptase PCR (qRT-PCR). 4) Confirm the importance of upregulated P450 genes in resistance using RNA interference (RNAi). 5) Functionally express P450s associated with resistance and demonstrate insecticide binding. 6) Develop high-throughput diagnostics for resistance.

Summary

unavailable

Committee	Not funded via Committee
Research Topics	Crop Science, Plant Science
Research Priority	X – Research Priority information not available
Research Initiative	X - not in an Initiative
Funding Scheme	X – not Funded via a specific Funding Scheme

I accept the terms and conditions of use (opens in new window)

export PDF file

back to list new search