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Abstract
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| Genomic resources for pest species, which are necessary for the development of new pest control strategies through plant breeding and/or biotechnology, are lagging behind. Our current gap in knowledge about pest genetics, genomics and plant-pest interactions is a major obstacle for the development of alternative pest control strategies. We propose to develop new pest control methods by taking advantage of a novel pest genomic resource created by team led by Dr. M Grbic: the whole-genome sequence of a major agricultural pest, the two-spotted spider mite (Tetranychus urticae). T. urticae is one of the major pests in agriculture. It feeds on over 1000 plant species and has rapid development (generation time 7 days in a hot season). It represents a key pest for greenhouse crops, annual field crops and many horticultural crops. In addition, the spider mite is pest in hot and dry climates and recent computer modeling predicts that its significance will increase as a consequence of global warming. Our goal is to develop novel, environmentally sound pest control strategies that will replace chemical pesticides and reduce environmental pollution and energy consumption in agriculture while at the same time increase the competitiveness in a knowledge-based economy. A joint multidisciplinary will allow us to: 1: Annotate the genome of the T. urticae and develop a spider mite whole genome expression microarray 2: Analyze natural variation of plant resistance to spider mites using high-throughput genomic technologies 3: Perform pest transcriptome profiling to characterize the consequences of feeding on resistant and susceptible plants 4: Create pest-resistant transgenic plants targeting various pest genes 5: Test the efficiency of the transgenic plants on pests and non-target organisms | |
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International
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Si |
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Project type
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Proyectos y convenios en convocatorias públicas competitivas |
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Company
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Onatrio Ministry of Research and Innovation |
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Entity Nationality
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CANADA |
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Entity size
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Pequeña Empresa (11-50) |
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Granting date
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11/01/2010 |