题目：Developing an Acylsugar-Mediated System for Control of Insects and Viruses in Tomato

报告人：Professor Martha A. Mutschler-Chu

               Section of Plant Breeding and Genetics, School of Integrative Plant Science,  

               Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853

邀请人：陈火英 教授

报告时间：2015年3月20日（周五）下午13:30

地点：农业与生物-ok138cn太阳集团古天乐·太阳0区103会议室

摘要：

Tomatoes are attacked by many insect pests, causing damage and losses directly through feeding and indirectly through virus transmission. Even with the use of integrated pest management, insect control relies heavily on pesticides, a practice that is increasingly limited by development of pesticide-resistant insects, and increased health and environmental concerns.  Some virus resistance genes have been found and deployed, however the virus resistance genes available are few in number and the control they provide can be limited. Therefore alternative means of control are necessary for both insects and the devastating plant viruses they vector.

Acylsugars are plant secondary metabolites exuded as complex mixtures from type IV glandular trichomes which provide the wild tomato Solanum pennellii with strong control of many insect pests, generally through deterrence. The transfer of this system to cultivated tomato could provide an alternative method of pest control. In the course of the work pursuing this goal, the acylsugar system is also becoming a platform for interactive work by molecular biologists, ecologists, along with geneticists and entomologists.

Acylsugar-producing tomato lines were created by the Cornell Tomato Breeding and Genetics Program, derived from crosses of tomato and S. pennellii.  The resulting tomato lines accumulate moderate levels of acylsugars, and can strongly reduce insect presence on plants in lab tests and in field trials performed by cooperating entomologists and virologists in multiple regions.  In some cases reduction or delay of virus infection was seen under field conditions. 

The composition of acylsugars produced by different S. pennellii accessions varies across their native range and can include different sugar moieties (glucose or sucrose) and fatty acid side chains. The incredible diversity of acylsugar chemotypes raises question regarding the impact of compound diversity for the efficacy and breadth of acylsugar mediated insect control.  QTL controlling acylsugar chemotype were identified and transferred into our benchmark acylsugar line, creating a series of sister lines to evaluate the impact of the chemotype shift in planta on control of pertinent tomato pests.