Feb. 12, 2013
“Our project will build expertise through education and create tools and strategies that complement existing methods to limit crop losses due to thrips-transmitted tospoviruses,” said Ullman, associate dean for undergraduate academic programs for the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, and professor of entomology and former chair of the UC Davis Department of Entomology.
Thrips are tiny insects that pierce and suck fluids from hundreds of species of plants, including tomatoes, grapes, strawberries and soybeans. The pests cause billions of dollars in damage to U.S. agricultural crops as direct pests and in transmitting plant viruses in the genus Tospovirus, such as Tomato spotted wilt virus. “There are 23 additional approved and emerging tospovirus genotypes transmitted by at least 14 thrips species (Thysanoptera: Thripidae),” said Ullman, who has been researching thrips and tospoviruses since 1987.
Ullman, principal investigator (PI) of the grant, credited the Interdisciplinary Research Support group led by Sheryl Soucy-Lubell in the UC Davis Office of Research, with assistance in developing the multi-institutional grant.
Other co-PIs involved in the five-year project are Scott Adkins of the USDA-ARS U.S. Horticultural Research Laboratory, Ft. Pierce, Fla.; Robert Kemerait of the University of Georgia; Tifton, Ga., George Kennedy of North Carolina State University, Raleigh, N.C.; Martha Mutschler of Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y.; Naidu Rayapati of Washington State University, Pullman, Wash.; and Dorith Rotenberg and Anna Whitfield of Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kans.
“Each investigator brings a unique set of skills to the project,” Ullman said. Adkins and Rayapati will focus on virus ecology, vectors and epidemiology; Kennedy, host plant resistance, virus ecology, epidemiology, extension and outreach; Kemerait, extension and outreach; Mutschler, plant breeding and host plant resistance; Rotenberg, vector/virus interactions and leadership of the educational network, and Whitfield, vector/virus molecular biology.
The team will integrate their efforts through monthly cyber conferences, meetings and workshops at annual APS meetings and by connecting undergraduate and graduate researchers through an educational network.
The project will be further enriched by a diverse group of collaborators. In California, this will include a team of UC Davis researchers and UC Cooperative Extension farm advisors, including Robert Gilbertson, Neil McRoberts, Tom Turini, Gene Miyao, Melissa Le Strange, and Scott Stoddard; educational experts David Rizzo and Gail Martinez; and a range of technical collaborators, including David Tricoli of the Ralph Parson’s Foundation Plant Transformation Facility and Garry Pearson of the UC Davis Core Greenhouse Facilities.
The project will involve faculty, researchers, postdoctoral fellows, graduate students and undergraduate students. “Our educational efforts will train scientists with multidisciplinary skills and strengthen the pipeline of under-represented minorities and women into science,” Ullman added.
“Our research,” she said, “will mine and deploy genome-based resources of plants, thrips vectors and tospoviruses to improve host-plant resistance over multiple cropping systems, mitigate resistance breaking, and further elucidate the etiology of tospovirus-thrips-plant host associations.”
“Our extension efforts include making information accessible via a national, web-based tospovirus risk assessment and management toolbox in the Plant Management Network (PMN), which is hosted by APS. The PMN will provide producers, crop advisors and others a national platform to access information and gain a better understanding of how to manage thrips and the tospoviruses they transmit. In the area of education, we will create and implement a national Thrips-Tospovirus Educational Network (TTEN) to train and mentor students.”
The four-fold specific objectives are to:
- mine, develop, and deploy plant, thrips and tospovirus genetic resources to create new technologies for tospovirus and thrips management;
- explore implications of virus population diversity and evolution on expansion of vector and plant host relationships, including durability of plant resistance and cultural practices;
- develop and implement a national TTEN to recruit, mentor and provide interdisciplinary training for graduate and undergraduate research scholars; and,
- improve and extend existing predictive disease management models, decision tools and management strategies to multiple crops and geographic regions.
“These highly respected experts will assess the program’s progress toward reaching its goals, recommend appropriate adjustments of funding, suggest new research directions, and review the impact of the extension and education program,” Ullman said.
Terry Westover of the UC Davis Center for Education Evaluation Services will work with Rotenberg and Ullman to evaluate all aspects of the educational network. Nathan B. Smith, associate professor and Extension economist, University of Georgia, will evaluate benefits and economic outcomes from research and outreach activities.
Related Link:
Thrips Show Altered Feeding Behavior When Infected with Tomato Spotted Wilt Virus
--Kathy Keatley Garvey
Communications specialist
UC Davis Department of Entomology
(530) 754-6894