Skip to main content
ARS Home » Southeast Area » Fort Pierce, Florida » U.S. Horticultural Research Laboratory » Subtropical Insects and Horticulture Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #223247
Title: Proteins expressed in blue-green sharpshooter leafhoppers

Author
item Hunter, Wayne

Submitted to: Georgia Academy of Sciences Meeting
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 1/27/2008
Publication Date: 3/14/2008
Citation: Hunter, W.B. 2008. Proteins expressed in blue-green sharpshooter leafhoppers [abstract]. 72nd Annual Meeting of the Florida Academy of Sciences in conjunction with the 85th Annual Meeting of the Georgia Academy of Sciences, March 14-15, 2008, Jacksonville, Florida. p. 4.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: We used a metagenomics approach to identify proteins from the blue-green sharpshooter, Graphocephala atropunctata (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae) which is an important vector of Pierce’s disease of grapes. The 44 proteins are being used as markers to monitor and identify current and exotic introductions of leafhoppers into the USA, and includes mitochondrial, ribosomal, elongation factor 1-alpha plus others, which have been submitted and published under accession numbers: DQ445499-DQ445542, in the National Center for Biotechnology Information, NCBI, public Database. The blue-green sharpshooter leafhopper, occurs naturally in California, and is a vector of the plant infecting bacterium, Xylella fastidiosa, which causes Pierce’s disease of grapes, and other Scorch-like diseases in many other woody fruit crops and ornamentals. While traditional chemical and biological management measures to reduce Pierces disease and its leafhopper vectors have proven to be effective, chemical control is costly. Improving the establishment of biological control measures would provide environmentally friendly management of leafhopper pests. Emerging technologies provide strategies to target the genetic basis of specific pathways in living organisms for the development of novel management strategies. We have identified some of the heat shock proteins and other defense and immunity genes which permit the BGSS to respond to various biotic and abiotic stresses, such as heat, cold, pathogens, and toxins. Identification of these and other proteins will continue to provide new tools and advance our understanding of leafhopper-Xylella, and leafhopper-parasitoid interactions which aids efforts to reduce BGSS and the spread of Pierces disease.