Location: Insect Behavior and Biocontrol Research
Project Number: 6036-22000-030-000-D
Project Type: In-House Appropriated
Start Date: Dec 8, 2015
End Date: Sep 30, 2020
Objective:
Objective 1. Develop new transgenic conditional lethal strains for sexing and sterility in tephritid and drosophilid fruit flies to be used in the sterile insect technique, produce redundant lethality systems for ecological safety, and transgenic technology for emerging pest species such as the Asian citrus psyllid.
Objective 2. Develop paratransgenic strains that eliminate the ability of host populations to vector plant disease by using Wolbachia cytoplasmic incompatibility to drive pathogen immunity throughout populations of key pests such as Asian citrus psyllid, glassy-winged sharpshooter, and potato/tomato psyllid.
Objective 3. Develop automated acoustic methods for improved surveillance and detection of hidden and invasive pests such as red palm and citrus root weevils and Asian long-horned beetle that will facilitate more rapid information collection/processing by use of big data technologies.
Objective 4. Develop improved visual-cue trap systems for surveillance of invasive and outbreak insect pests such as Asian citrus psyllid and corn silk fly, and improve strategies for detecting and predicting the dispersal of these pests by understanding the role of visual and other stimuli in affecting their behavior.
Objective 5. Develop predictive models for fall armyworm migration pathways that are shifting due to climate change, and improve area-wide landscape management tactics for these pests by developing cover crop and biological control strategies to control them.
Sub-objective 5.A. Develop genetic methods to monitor fall armyworm population behavior and air transport models to describe and predict its migration pathways and potential changes in infestation patterns due to climate change.
Sub-objective 5.B. Improve area-wide landscape management tactics by developing cover crop and other strategies to mitigate pest populations such as fall armyworm, and attract or support natural enemies and pollinators.
Approach:
The experimental approaches to achieve these objectives is multidisciplinary and integrates genetics, ecology, behavior, and engineering to address various stages of control, from molecular genetics leading to autocidal strain development to predicting changes in pest migration in response to global climate change. These approaches will apply, initially, to high priority invasive fruit flies, beetles, psyllids, fall armyworm and corn silk flies, and will include studies for development of molecular genetics methods for gene discovery and manipulation to develop genetically-modified pest strains to suppress wild populations, or eliminate their ability to vector pathogens of plant disease; development of detection and surveillance methods for optimization of acoustic, chemical and visual-cue detectors for detection and surveillance of hidden, invasive and outbreak pests; and biological control studies to develop predictive models to target shifting migrations of noctuid pests in response to climate change, and development of improved area-wide landscape management tactics to mitigate pest populations and attract natural enemies and pollinators.
