Location: Subtropical Insects and Horticulture Research
Project Number: 6034-30400-001-000-D
Project Type: In-House Appropriated
Start Date: Sep 11, 2025
End Date: Sep 10, 2030
Objective:
Objective 1: Investigate biologically-based control and ecological interactions of subtropical invasive pests with their natural enemies (such as the ladybird beetle predator Delphastus pallidus and the predatory thrips Franklinothrips vespiformis) using strategies including banker plant systems to promote environmentally sound control in vegetable and ornamental crops.
Sub-objective 1a: Expand the utility of the banker plant system by including different whitefly predators and broaden the spectrum of whitefly pests targeted in a variety of cropping systems.
Sub-objective 1b: Genome assembly to produce DNA barcodes for identification and evaluation of predatory mites used for biological control.
Objective 2: Investigate structural, physiological, molecular, and chemical aspects of the whitefly and invasive exotic insect pests and identify biologically based control methods including interdiction molecules and delivery strategies such as but not limited to the symbiont production and delivery of feeding disruptors, peptide inhibitors of disease transmission, and/or semiochemicals than can be used in the development of novel interdiction strategies.
Sub-objective 2a: symbiont volatile production – methyl eugenol / fruit fly. Sub-objective 2b: Developing biologically-based control strategies: Mantabodies / immunized plants / salivary sheath block.
Sub-objective 2c: Using symbiont “Biofactories” to produce biological control molecules.
Approach:
This project focuses on resilient and sustainable biologically based control strategies for exotic whitefly and subtropical invasive pests of vegetables and ornamental plants. The first approach focuses on expanding the utility of the papaya banker plant system by using different predators (beetles, thrips) and targeting additional invasive exotic whitefly pests for control in different cropping systems to enhance the pest control efficiency of the system by increasing the number and diversity of predators used and pests controlled. The system will be pushed to determine maximum beetle or thrips predator production and corresponding whitefly prey capacity limits of the papaya banker plant system. Another banker plant system we developed on corn with banks grass mite as the prey will be screened for use with the predatory thrips which are also known to eat mites if the papaya banker is not fruitful. Developing molecular barcodes for predatory mites will provide new tools for identifying and validating current and new predator mite performance on pest populations. Downstream goals include providing stakeholders with new diagnostic tools to rapidly identify/validate/monitor current and new predator mite populations. Also, genetic markers associated with effective predator mite populations used in commercial settings will be identified. These results will be evaluated for their association with predator failures, especially when growers are using multiple species and sources. Another strategy focuses on symbionts that can be engineered to produce insect behavior modifying volatile molecules and therefore can be used to block insect pest infestations in field conditions, and symbiont production of methyl eugenol represents the best proof-of-concept to demonstrate this symbiont capability. Small functional domains from single domain antibodies will be developed and deployed to provide protection for crops against pests and pathogens. These antibodies from camelids are called nanobodies and from sharks and rays are called Variable New Antigen Receptors (VNARs) produced from the larger gene, the immunoglobulin new antigen receptor, IgNAR. Symbionts developed on plants can be engineered to produce and stably store desired biomolecules that can then be harvested and used to extract the desired biomolecules that can be used for pest/pathogen control as topically applied biological pesticides. Their functional activity will be evaluated by creating extracts from harvested symbionts in appropriate buffers and use them for topical applications and bioassays with plant challenges using appropriate insect targets and greenhouse plant insect challenge experiments.