[AGRIFOOD] Do mycorrhizal fungi facilitate root defence signalling in belowground predator-prey interactions?

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Ensuring future food security in the UK will rely on increasing crop production by c. 70% by 2070. Meeting these production goals will depend on reducing crop losses to insect pests at a time when new pesticide legislation makes pest management increasingly challenging. Plant derived resistance, and particularly multi-species interactions that enhance such crop resistance, could therefore be invaluable. The aim of this project is to develop a sustainable biological control system for vine weevil (Otiorhynchus sulcatus) in a model perennial crop (red raspberry; Rubus idaeus) using a combination of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) and entomopathogenic nematodes. Increasing evidence points to the importance of root defences against belowground attack, including directly detrimental effects on the attacker and the recruitment of antagonists (i.e. indirect defence). Root defence signalling is only now being characterised in some plant species, but nothing is known about how AMF communities influence these processes despite good evidence for AMF generally increasing resistance to root herbivory. In particular, we hypothesise that some combinations of AMF species will facilitate root defences either directly or indirectly. The proposed research will identify key AMF species that influence root defence signalling and examine the responses of root-feeding weevil larvae to various combinations of these species. The collaboration between RHUL (Prof. Gange) and SCRI-MLURI (Drs Johnson, Bennett and Dawson) will allow the student to perform state of the art metabolomic profiling and measurement of in situ root exudation patterns, to gain a mechanistic understanding of the resistance. The most promising combinations of AMF will then be tested in conjunction with nematodes, to identify that which provides maximum levels of weevil control. This project is strongly aligned with the NERC CASE Priority area of Food and Agriculture (AGRIFOOD) and involves one of Europes main plant breeders (SCRI, a charitable company limited by guarantee) as the CASE partner. In particular, the project combines fundamental environmental research at one of the UK's leading biology departments (RHUL) with applied expertise at one of the world leaders in soft fruit production, ecology and protection (SCRI).