The potential to control insects and other organisms antagonistic to wheat by the up regulation of hydroxamic acids.

通过上调异羟肟酸来控制对小麦有拮抗作用的昆虫和其他生物的潜力。

• 批准号: BB/E006841/1
• 负责人: John Pickett
• 金额: $ 47.44万
• 依托单位: Rothamsted Research
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2007
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2007 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=BB%2FE006841%2F1
• 关键词: potential; control; insects; other; organisms

Wheat is an important agricultural crop in the United Kingdom. Greenfly (aphids) can reduce grain quality and yield by direct feeding and transmission of diseases to this crop and they need to be controlled. The Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the agricultural industry have invested much effort into controlling these pests and others, including fungi and weeds, with pesticides, but there is concern that excessive use of such agents could harm the environment and pass into the human food chain. Attempts have been made to reduce pesticide use by transferring insecticidally active agents into wheat from other organisms by genetic modification. However, many plants species can mount their own defence by producing small amounts of natural chemicals that can deter invading pests. We plan to exploit this property to develop alternative, more environmentally compatible pest resistance strategies for cereal crop plants. Specifically, we are interested in the hydroxamic acids (HAs), a family of compounds produced in wheat and other cereals that defend plants against pests. These chemicals reduce the development of aphids and may deter other insects and weeds. The potential of HAs to control pests in cereals has been intensively studied and, the pathway involved in their biosynthesis within the plant is now known. We plan to examine HA production in wheat varieties that have varying degrees of resistance to pests and disease to confirm that these compounds do indeed have a significant role in aphid resistance. Besides differences in HA levels in these varieties that can be detected under normal conditions, we will exploit ways of increasing production in the wheat by investigating the action of other natural plant chemicals, called plant activators, which can cause increased production in the defence chemistry of plants. In this way we hope to develop means to switch on the production of the plant's natural defence compounds only when necessary, thereby conserving the plant's energy and reducing the development of pest resistance. In addition to demonstrating the effect of high levels of HAs on aphids, we will also investigate their effects on other insects such as gout fly, and to weeds such as black-grass. We know the genetic backgrounds, or pedigrees, of the varieties that we have chosen to study, so we will be able to identify the original parents of wheat varieties that produce high levels of HAs or that are capable of increasing production by the action of the plant activators. Therefore, by the end of the project, working under more practically oriented funding programmes, we will develop our findings together with industrial partners to produce new varieties of wheat that will be able to protect themselves more effectively in the face of a pest attack. This will involve breeding techniques to introduce high production of HAs into wheat plants that can grow in the United Kingdom. The HAs are naturally produced in the roots and green tissue of the plant and so do not influence the nutritional value of the seed from which we make flour for food production, but we will ensure that high HA producing varieties do not show detectable amounts of HAs in the grain. However, full human risk assessment would be part of the work done following this project. Although we can only speculate on how valuable increased HA production will be in developing new means for controlling pests on wheat, we know that HAs are antagonistic to a range of pests, weeds and fungal pathogens. We have established chemical analytical and molecular biological methods for analysing the natural chemicals and associated genes involved in the production of these materials and we have, in preliminary studies, demonstrated increased production of HAs with the natural plant activator chemical, cis-jasmone.

小麦是英国一种重要的农作物。绿蝇通过直接取食和向作物传播疾病，降低了粮食品质和产量，需要加以控制。环境、食品和农村事务部和农业行业投入了大量精力，用杀虫剂控制这些害虫和其他害虫，包括真菌和杂草，但有人担心，过度使用这种制剂可能会损害环境，并进入人类食物链。人们试图通过转基因将杀虫活性物质从其他生物转移到小麦中，从而减少杀虫剂的使用。然而，许多植物物种可以通过产生少量的天然化学物质来防御入侵的害虫。我们计划利用这一特性，为谷类作物开发替代的、更环保的抗虫害策略。具体地说，我们对异羟肟酸(HAS)感兴趣，这是一种在小麦和其他谷物中产生的化合物，可以保护植物免受害虫的侵害。这些化学物质减少了蚜虫的发育，并可能阻止其他昆虫和杂草。HAS控制谷类害虫的潜力已被深入研究，植物体内HAS生物合成的途径现已为人所知。我们计划在对病虫害具有不同程度抗性的小麦品种中检测HA的产生，以证实这些化合物确实在抗蚜虫方面具有重要作用。除了在正常情况下可以检测到这些品种之间的HA水平差异外，我们还将通过研究其他天然植物化学物质(称为植物激活剂)的作用来探索提高小麦产量的方法，这些化学物质可以在植物的防御化学中导致产量增加。通过这种方式，我们希望开发出仅在必要时才启动植物天然防御化合物生产的方法，从而节省植物的能量并减少对害虫的抗性发展。除了展示高水平的腐植酸对蚜虫的影响外，我们还将研究它们对其他昆虫(如痛风蝇)和杂草(如黑草)的影响。我们知道我们选择研究的品种的遗传背景或系谱，因此我们将能够识别出产生高水平Ha的小麦品种的原始亲本，或者能够通过植物激活剂的作用增加产量的小麦品种。因此，到项目结束时，在更注重实际的筹资方案下，我们将与工业合作伙伴一起开发我们的研究成果，以生产能够在虫害袭击中更有效地保护自己的新品种小麦。这将涉及到育种技术，将高产的哈斯德引入可以在英国生长的小麦植株。腐植酸是在植物的根部和绿色组织中自然产生的，因此不会影响我们用来制造食品面粉的种子的营养价值，但我们会确保高腐植酸产量的品种不会在谷物中检测到腐植酸的含量。然而，全面的人类风险评估将是该项目之后所做工作的一部分。虽然我们只能推测增加HA产量对开发控制小麦害虫的新方法有多大价值，但我们知道，它对一系列害虫、杂草和真菌病原体具有拮抗作用。我们已经建立了化学分析和分子生物学方法来分析与这些材料的生产有关的天然化学物质和相关基因，在初步研究中，我们证明了天然植物激活剂顺式茉莉酮增加了HAS的产量。