Basics of host-plant-herbivore interactions of the coffee berry borer Hypothenemus hampei (Ferrari) (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) controlled by semiochemicals and associated microbial populations.

尽管经过几十年的研究，咖啡浆果蛀虫hampei仍然是世界上最重要的咖啡害虫，给热带地区超过1亿人造成了严重的经济损失。造成这种情况的主要原因之一，是人们对昆虫的生物学和生态学，尤其是化学生态学仍然知之甚少。这里提出的研究项目旨在为填补这些知识空白做出贡献。这些领域的基础研究将揭示hampei在寄主定位和定殖阶段使用的关键线索，从而为有效控制害虫开辟新的创新可能性。为此，将对咖啡浆果蛀虫的生物学和化学生态学的重要方面进行研究，例如：(1)雌性在其扩散和定植阶段使用的主要寄主位置线索，包括寻找可能的hampei聚集信息素（与Baldwyn Torto博士合作）；(2)专注于气相色谱-单感觉器耦合研究的hampei嗅觉系统的功能表征（与比尔汉森教授合作，马克斯普朗克研究所耶纳）；(3)东非森林野生Rubiaceae中可能的替代寄主植物或非寄主植物，以及它们可能吸引和/或排斥甲虫的挥发物（与英国皇家植物园的Aaron Davis博士合作）；(4)与hampei相关的微生物种群结构以及这些微生物多样性可能参与的代谢过程（与Eoin L. Brodie博士合作）；美国劳伦斯伯克利国家实验室和美国马里兰州美国农业部Fernando E. Vega博士)。

In spite of many decades of research, the coffee berry borer Hypothenemus hampei remains the most important pest of coffee throughout the world, causing serious economic losses to more than 100 million people in the tropics. Among the main reasons for this, are the still poorly understood biology and ecology, and especially the chemical ecology of the insect. The here proposed research project aims at contributing to filling some of these knowledge gaps. Basic research in these areas will unveil key cues used by H. hampei during its host location and colonization phases, thus, opening up new and innovative possibilities to effectively control the pest. For this, important aspects of the biology and chemical ecology of the coffee berry borer will be investigated, such as: (1) the major host location cues used by the females during their dispersal and colonization phases, including the search for a possible aggregation pheromone of H. hampei (in collaboration with Dr. Baldwyn Torto, icipe), (2) the functional characterization of the olfactory system in H. hampei focusing on coupled gas chromatography-single sensillum investigations (in collaboration with Prof. Bill Hansson, Max Planck Institute Jena), (3) possible alternative host plants or non-host plants of H. hampei among wild Rubiaceae in East African forests, and their volatiles that possibly attract and/ or repel the beetles (in collaboration with Dr. Aaron Davis, Royal Botanical Gardens in Kew, UK), and (4) the structure of microbial populations associated with H. hampei as well as the metabolic processes that these microbial diversity might be involved in (in collaboration with Dr. Eoin L. Brodie, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, USA and Dr. Fernando E. Vega, USDA Maryland, USA).