Chemical and molecular ecology in the study of multitrophic interactions for the management of Tomato Leafminer

• Grant number: 24/15548-6
• Support Opportunities: Research Program on Global Climate Change - Thematic Grants
• Start date: January 01, 2025
• End date: December 31, 2027
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Agronomy - Plant Health
• Principal Investigator: José Maurício Simões Bento
• Grantee: José Maurício Simões Bento
• Principal researcher abroad: Jiancai Li
• Institution abroad: CAS Center for Excellence in Molecular Plant Sciences, China
• Host Institution: Escola Superior de Agricultura Luiz de Queiroz (ESALQ). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Piracicaba , SP, Brazil
• Associated scholarship(s): 25/05081-6 - The Impact of Rhizobacteria on Direct and Indirect Tomato Resistance to Tuta absoluta - Part 1, BP.PD; 25/01222-4 - Behavioral Responses of Tuta absoluta natural enemies to Volatiles from Cultivated and Wild Tomato Plants Inoculated with Rhizobacteria, BP.IC; 25/01310-0 - Electrophysiological and Behavioral Responses of Macrolophus basicornis to Volatiles from Cultivated and Wild Tomato Plants Inoculated with Rhizobacteria, BP.TT

Abstract

Individual pest management can easily be broken by pests, and leads to the resurgence of pests, posing a serious threat to agricultural production. The integrated pest management that considering the multi-trophic interaction between "soil-crop-pest-natural enemy" gets more and more favor. The tomato leafminer (TLM) is a devasting invasive pest that seriously threatens tomato and other Solanaceae crop industries. It is urgent to develop a green and integrated pest management strategy to TLM. As one of the original countries of tomato leafminer, Brazil has abundant natural enemies, resistant tomato varieties and rhizobacteria resource. Combining the advantages of the China-Brazil application teams, this project intends to carry out the following studies: 1) Reveal the mechanism by which rhizobacteria affect plant resistance; 2) Study the molecular mechanism and metabolic basis of wild tomatoes' high resistance to TLM; 3) Explore the rich natural enemy resources of Brazil and analyze the molecular mechanism of natural enemies parasite TLM; 4) Develop an integrated management pipeline to TLM, by study the interaction between rhizobacteria, tomatoes and natural enemies. The achievement of this project can not only provide a comprehensive solution for the integrated management of TLM, but will also shed light on the management of other important pests. (AU)