共生菌在其宿主截形叶螨与植物互作中的作用机制研究

植食性昆虫共生菌在植物与宿主攻与守的“军备竞赛”中发挥着重要的作用。它们通过多种方式干扰植物与宿主的互作，提高宿主的生殖发育，促进宿主的种群增长。近年来，截形叶螨在我国大暴发，其暴发机制尚不清楚。项目组前期调查发现，截形叶螨感染多种共生菌，且共生菌显著提高宿主适合度，共生菌是宿主暴发的潜在重要因素。本研究将从叶螨-共生菌-植物互作的角度出发，拟通过基因组、转录组和蛋白组学等手段，调查共生菌对截形叶螨代谢的调控，探究共生菌对植物防御及营养代谢的影响并筛选效应子，揭示共生菌在植物与叶螨互作中的作用及分子机制。研究结果将有助于揭示植食者-细菌-植物的互作关系，阐明共生菌在截形叶螨暴发中的潜在作用，为害螨的绿色防控及保障农业生产安全奠定基础。

Bacterial endosymbionts of herbivorous insects play an important role in the arms race involving attack and defense between plant and herbivore. These bacterial endosymbionts can profoundly interfere with the outcome of plant-insect interactions in diverse ways. Symbiont-conferred reproduction and fitness benefits can favour their host occurrence. In recent years, there were outbreaks of Tetranychus truncates Ehara in China, but the underlying mechanisms involved are still unclear. Our previous investigation revealed that T. truncates harbored various endosymbiotic bacteria and these endosymbionts significantly improved their host fitness, which is potentially an important factor in the outbreaks of the host. By using genome, transcriptome and proteomics approaches, this project, from the perspective of mite-symbionts-plant interaction, will further investigate the regulation of symbionts on the metabolism of T. truncatus, and explore the role of symbionts in plant defense and nutrition metabolism and screening effectors to reveal the role and molecular mechanism of symbiosis in plant-spider mite interaction. The results are expected to clarify the interaction between plant-endosymbiont-insect and the potential role of symbionts in the outbreaks of mites, and that could be useful in controlling of mite pests and ensure the safety of agricultural production.