BREAD: Novel Biomarkers that Rapidly Identify Insect Populations that are Efficient Vectors of Circulative Plant Viruses

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PI: Stewart Gray (USDA-ARS/Cornell University)Co-PI Michael MacCoss (University of Washington) and Lava Kumar [International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Nigeria]Senior Personnel: Michelle Cilia [USDA-ARS, Ithaca, NY], Michael Bereman (University of Washington), Alvin Simmons [USDA-ARS, Charleston, SC], and Rachid Hanna [International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Cameroon]Control of insect vectors of plant and animal viruses is arguably one of the biggest challenges to agriculture and human health and is one of the seven goals outlined by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in its Grand Challenges in Global Health initiative. Plant viruses in the families, Luteoviridae, Nanoviridae, and Geminiviridae, cause diseases with serious economic consequences in many staple food crops in Sub-Saharan Africa and a majority are transmitted aphids and whiteflies in a circulative, persistent manner. Cultural and chemical control strategies, aimed at reducing or avoiding infection, can be effective; however, their success is dependent upon knowledge of the population dynamics of the insect vectors, including their efficiency to transmit viruses. This is challenging because populations of insects, even within the same species, vary widely in their efficiency of virus transmission making targeted management strategies nearly impossible. Recently several protein biomarkers were identified that distinguish aphid populations capable of transmitting these circulating viruses from those that are incapable of transmitting the virus. This project will determine if these biomarkers can be used to identify vector competent populations of other aphid and whitefly species that transmit similar circulating viruses affecting a wide range staple food crops in sub-Saharan Africa and elsewhere in the world. If common or species-specific biomarkers are identified, they can be used to rapidly identify those insect populations that are efficient virus vectors and target them for application of virus disease management strategies. Targeted vector control will reduce the unnecessary application of pesticides and other crop inputs. In many cases the insects that are not vectors of viruses are not injurious to overall crop health. This targeted approach will help to minimize virus transmission within and between cropping systems, and will disproportionately benefit the resource poor, food insecure nations. The judicious use of crop inputs based on risk information rather than continual prophylactic applications has economic, environmental and health benefits. Indeed, a targeted approach to integrated pest management has the potential to provide farmers with the best form of plant virus protection: early and fast detection of vector species and avoidance of infection. The project will focus on solving the key technology components necessary to give smallholder farmers access to advanced approaches for the control of insects that transmit some of the most economically devastating plant viruses. Outreach and education components are focused on implementing a pipeline for the eventual deployment of a field-based assay in Africa to target the most important insect vector species. All of the biological information generated from virus transmission assays and gene sequencing will be made available to the scientific community through publications, long-term repositories (NCBI, USDA-ARS) and project websites and directly to integrated pest management (IPM) and agricultural stakeholders at conferences. Data will be compiled into a handbook for smallholder farmers for rapid dissemination throughout Africa via IITA extension specialists. All raw mass spectrometry data files, Skyline documents, MS/MS spectrum libraries, and refined targeted proteomics instrument methods generated using Skyline will be available at http://proteome.gs.washington.edu.