Arable - Understanding phenotypic and genetic variation in wing polyphenism in an aphid virus vector

蚜虫是世界上经济上最重要的昆虫害虫之一，每年对多种粮食和商品作物造成数十亿美元的产量损失。蚜虫之所以如此具有破坏性，部分原因是它们是许多植物病毒的高效载体。蚜虫表现出的一个显著特征，对它们在作物中传播病毒的能力有重大影响，是它们能够响应环境线索产生完全不同的有翼和无翼形式。这种发育的可塑性被称为翅多型性，并允许蚜虫产生后代，这些后代被优化为最大的生殖输出（无翅形式）或能够通过飞行（有翅形式）来响应环境条件。我们最近发现，在何种程度上，破坏性蚜虫害虫，桃蚜，产生有翼的形式下拥挤（这通常会导致翅膀的生产）和非拥挤的条件下（这通常会导致生产无翼的形式）的遗传不同的克隆显着的变化。这一发现很重要，原因有二。首先，蚜虫基因型产生翅型的程度将直接影响其通过作物和在作物之间传播植物病毒的能力。其次，在不同的蚜虫无性系中鉴定蚜虫翅膀产生的变异提供了一个机会来鉴定支持这种变异的基因和遗传变异。桃蚜及其基本遗传基础仍然未知。该项目的目的是通过利用最近为这种蚜虫害虫开发的独特生物和基因组资源来解决这一知识差距，该资源包括110个完全测序的遗传上不同的M克隆的活文库。在该项目的第一个目标中，我们将对每个个体进行表型分析。在拥挤和非拥挤条件下，对活体文库中的桃蚜克隆进行翅型多型性分析。所获得的数据将提供前所未有的深入了解的程度表型变异的翅膀多型在M。从每一个种植农作物的大陆收集的桃蚜。了解这一关键性状的变异程度将使我们能够在未来更准确地预测作物中的病毒传播。此外，产生强大的表型信息翅多型为每个克隆将使我们能够调查其基础的遗传基础，在目标2。为此，我们将利用每个M的现有序列数据。在克隆文库中的基因型，以确定基因和遗传变异相关的表型变异翅多型在以前从来没有可能的方式。所获得的数据将为这种适应性性状的分子基础提供基本的见解，并且是开发新干预措施的第一步，这些干预措施针对参与翅膀生产的关键基因或其产物，以减少病毒传播。

Aphids are among the world's most economically important group of insect pests, causing billions of US dollars of yield loss per annum to a wide range of food and commodity crops. Aphids are, in part, so damaging because they are highly efficient vectors of numerous plant viruses. A remarkable trait exhibited by aphids, that has a major impact on their ability to transmit viruses in crops, is their ability to produce completely different winged and non-winged forms in response to environmental cues. This developmental plasticity is termed wing polyphenism and allows aphids to produce offspring that are optimised for maximum reproductive output (non-winged form) or capable of dispersing via flight (winged forms) in response to environmental conditions. We recently uncovered marked variation in the extent to which genetically distinct clones of the damaging aphid pest, Myzus persicae, produce winged forms under both crowded (which typically induces wing production) and non-crowded conditions (which typically results in the production of non-winged forms). This finding is important for two reasons. Firstly, the extent to which an aphid genotype produces winged forms will directly impact its capacity to disperse plant viruses through and between crops. Secondly, the identification of variation in aphid wing production in different aphid clones provides an opportunity to identify the genes and genetic variation underpinning this variation.Despite the importance of this preliminary data, the extent of phenotypic variation in wing polyphenism across diverse populations of M. persicae, and its underpinning genetic basis, remains unknown. The aim of this project is to address this knowledge gap by exploiting a unique biological and genomic resource recently developed for this aphid pest comprising a living library of 110 fully sequenced genetically distinct clones of M. persicae.In the first objective of the project, we will phenotype each individual M. persicae clone in the living library for wing polyphenism under crowded and uncrowded conditions. The data obtained will provide unprecedented insight into the extent of phenotypic variation in wing polyphenism in M. persicae collected from every continent where crops are grown. Understanding the extent of variation in this key trait will allow us, in future, to much more accurately predict virus transmission in crops. Furthermore, generating robust phenotypic information on wing polyphenism for each clone will allow us to investigate its underpinning genetic basis in Objective 2. For this we will leverage our existing sequence data for each M. persicae genotype in the clone library to identify genes and genetic variation associated with phenotypic variation in wing polyphenism in a way that has never been previously possible. The data obtained will provide fundamental insight into the molecular basis of this adaptive trait, and is a first step in the development of novel interventions that target key genes, or their products, involved in wing production in order to reduce virus transmission.