Optimising symbiont-mediated RNA interference as a control measure for Western Flower Thrips and Tomato Spotted Wilt Virus

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Current control strategies for agricultural insect pests are heavily reliant on chemical pesticides. However, there is no safe targeted chemical pesticide; these chemicals can also affect non-target beneficial insect species such as pollinating bees. The applicants have recently developed a new technology, symbiont-mediated RNA interference (SMR), that can be applied in a wide range of insects. This proposal will extend their success in applying SMR to control populations of Western Flower Thrips (WFT). WFT are a major pest of both vegetables and ornamental crops, and they feed on leaves, flowers, and pollen, of many plant species. They are globally distributed as an invasive species that has spread from western USA in the last 50 years. As a pesticide, SMR offers two-tier specificity, meaning that only the target species, and not beneficial species such as bees, should be affected. This proposal explores how the technology can be optimised for population control of WFT and whether it can be extended to limit transmission of Tomato Spotted Wilt Virus. This plant virus is transmitted by WFT and can infect over 1,000 species of plants in 84 families, giving it one of the broadest host ranges of any plant pathogen; it causes annual losses to agriculture worldwide of over $1 billion value. Demonstrating that SMR can prevent virus transmission by an insect will be an important proof-of-concept, with implications for how the technology could be applied in other contexts such as limiting the spread of Dengue and Zika viruses by mosquitoes. In addition, the research programme will provide experimental data to demonstrate target species specificity, for instance whether there could be any detrimental effects on honey bees, and whether horizontal gene transfer and the evolution of resistance could be concerns with respect to future field applications of the SMR technology.