Location: Soil Management and Sugarbeet Research
Project Number: 3012-21220-011-006-S
Project Type: Non-Assistance Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: Sep 1, 2024
End Date: Aug 31, 2026
Objective:
Insects pose a persistent agricultural threat, contributing to economic losses through both direct actions that damage crops and the indirect transmission of viral, fungal, and bacterial plant pathogens. Effective management of insect pests is thus crucial to successful crop cultivation efforts. Large-scale deployment of chemical insecticides has traditionally been the primary approach for insect control. The predicted shift away from neonicotinoid insecticides due to associated adverse environmental effects will result in an increased prevalence of many insect-vectored diseases. The increasing prevalence and severity of virus yellows in sugar beets – caused by transmission of beet yellows virus, beet western yellows virus, beet chlorosis virus, and beet mild yellowing virus via several aphid species – underscores the immediate need for alternative management strategies. We previously demonstrated that engineered mutant constructs of the potato leafroll virus N-terminal readthrough domain (N-RTD) efficiently kill the green peach aphid, Myzus persicae, when fed in an artificial diet. Here we aim to test and quantify the effectiveness of these novel biopesticides against a variety of different aphid species and develop methodologies for in planta delivery of these reagents in both sugar beet and Arabidopsis thaliana.
Approach:
Polerovirus N-RTD proteins will be expressed in E. coli and purified according to established protocols. To examine the effectiveness of viral-derived biopesticides, the cooperator will feed purified wildtype and mutant N-RTD proteins to age-synchronized Myzus sp., Rhopalosiphum sp. Aphis sp., and Phorodon sp. in an artificial diet and measure mortality. The cooperator will also evaluate the efficacy of these insecticidal agents when delivered to aphids via plant tissue. N-RTD proteins will be introduced into sugar beet and Arabidopsis leaves by manual infiltration, petiolar uptake through soaking, and agrobacterium transformation. Following N-RTD treatment, samples of live and dead aphids will be prepared for further analysis by transmission electron microscopy to elucidate any morphological changes in the insect gut that are associated with cell death.
