Using landscape genomics to improve management of insect pest species

害虫对农业有着广泛的负面影响，造成了巨大的经济损失。对害虫种类进行监测是控制其数量和减少它们对作物造成损害的根本。这是因为早期发现可以提高在它们扩散和增加种群规模之前控制它们的机会。然而，由于追踪个体的困难，研究小型昆虫的迁徙可能会有问题。此外，对害虫防治方法的抗性，无论是对杀虫剂还是对宿主植物抗性品种的抗性，正成为一个日益重要的问题。推断害虫物种的种群结构以及种群和景观之间的连通性是了解迁移模式的关键，可用于为害虫监测和控制计划提供信息。这个全额资助的项目提供了一个令人兴奋的机会，应用种群基因组学和进化概念来改善害虫管理和了解抗性的进化。该项目将使用当前莴苣蚜虫Nasonovia ribisnigri作为模型系统，以评估景观基因组学如何用于改善蚜虫监测和控制抗性等位基因的传播。莴苣蚜虫（Nasonovia ribisnigri）是莴苣作物的主要害虫，造成了巨大的经济损失。减少蚜虫侵袭和损害的最有效方法之一是种植抗寄主生菜品种，以阻止蚜虫在植物上定居。然而，最近在一些生物型中，破坏寄主-植物抗性机制（Rb）的能力已经进化。在这种情况下，对作物的监测和监测对于产生早期预警信息，从而在蚜虫进入生菜头部之前改善有针对性的控制具有重要意义。然而，矛盾的是，虽然有翅蚜虫在春天迅速占领生菜作物，但它们在水陷阱和吸力陷阱中都异常稀少。因此，了解物种的迁移模式是设计有效的捕获和控制方法的基础。为此，该项目将利用基因组学来推断不同地理尺度和不同景观下的利比斯尼夜蛾种群结构和种群间基因流动水平。这些知识将用于开发监测方法，最大限度地在物种迁移到作物的早期阶段对个体进行观察。此外，这些结果与Rb表型全基因组标记的发展相结合，将提供有关抗性在英国的进化和传播的基本信息。你将在洛桑研究所昆虫调查小组工作，这是一个致力于监测英国蚜虫和飞蛾种群的国家能力。您将在华威大学注册，田间工作将与英国领先的生菜生产商G's密切合作。因此，该奖学金提供了广泛的机会，与欧洲领先的家族生鲜农产品公司之一合作，为所有主要的英国零售商和许多欧洲零售商种植和供应大量新鲜，高质量的作物。

Insect pests have a widespread negative impact in agriculture, resulting in very large economic loses. Monitoring and surveillance of pest species is fundamental to control their populations and reduce the damage they inflict on crops. This is because an early detection improves the chances of controlling them before they spread out and increase their population size. However, studying the migration of small insects can be problematic due to the difficulty of tracking individuals. In addition, resistance to pest control methods, whether to insecticide or to host-plant resistant cultivars, is becoming an increasingly important issue. Inferring the population structure of pest species and the connectivity across populations and landscapes is key to understand migration patterns, which can be used to inform pest surveillance and control schemes. This fully-funded project provides an exciting opportunity to apply population genomics and evolutionary concepts to improve insect pest management and understand the evolution of resistance.The project will use Nasonovia ribisnigri, the currant-lettuce aphid, as a model system to evaluate how landscape genomics can be used to improve aphid surveillance and control the spread of resistance alleles. The currant-lettuce aphid, Nasonovia ribisnigri, is a major pest of lettuce crops responsible for large economic losses. One of the most efficient way to reduce aphid infestations and damage is growing host-resistant lettuce cultivars that stop aphids from colonising the plant. However, the capacity of breaking the host-plant resistance mechanism (Rb) has recently evolved in some biotypes. In these circumstances, surveillance and monitoring of crops becomes of great importance to produce early warning information that would improve targeted control of N. ribisnigri before aphids enter the lettuce head. However, the paradox is that whilst winged aphids are quick to colonise the lettuce crop in spring they are unusually scarce in both water traps and suction traps. Understanding the migration patterns of the species is, therefore, fundamental to design efficient methods of capture and control. For this, the project will use genomics to infer the population structure and the levels of gene flow between populations of N. ribisnigri at different geographic scales and different landscapes. This knowledge will be used to develop surveillance methods that maximise the observation of individuals of the species at the early stages of their migration into the crops. Furthermore, these results combined with the development of genome-wide markers for the Rb phenotype will provide fundamental information about the evolution and spread of resistance across the UK.You will be based at Rothamsted Research working within the Insect Survey group, a national capability dedicated to the monitoring of aphid and moth populations in the UK. You will be registered at the University of Warwick and field work will be carried out closely with the UK's leading lettuce producer G's. Thus, the studentship offers extensive opportunities to engage with one of Europe's leading family-owned fresh produce companies, growing and supplying a vast array of fresh, high quality crops to all the major UK retailer and many European retailers.