Understanding insecticide detoxification in key hoverfly pollinator guilds. (Ref: 4287)

化学杀虫剂用于控制害虫已有几十年的历史，在可预见的未来，它仍然是确保提供负担得起的食物和作为病媒控制的一部分所必不可少的。开发杀虫剂的一个关键要求是它们具有害虫特异性，并且对主要传粉者无害，这些传粉者在确保大量开花植物的种子生产中起着至关重要的作用。最近对三种管理蜜蜂物种的研究表明，特定的酶在决定蜜蜂对杀虫剂的敏感性方面也至关重要。具体来说，属于CYP9Q和CYP9BU亚家族的细胞色素P450酶已被证明对包括n -氰脒类新烟碱类杀虫剂在内的三种不同类别的某些杀虫剂提供保护。这就引出了一个重要的问题——降解杀虫剂的p450是否普遍存在于所有传粉媒介物种中，如果不是，那么缺乏这些酶的物种对杀虫剂的敏感性有什么影响？食蚜蝇是一种重要的传粉媒介，每年为全球经济贡献3亿美元的重要粮食作物的一半以上授粉。此外，它们还提供蜜蜂所没有的生态系统服务，这与它们的食蚜或腐生幼虫阶段有关。这些阶段使这些行会暴露在酶的独特选择压力下，以解毒在这些环境中发现的化学物质。本研究旨在深入了解杀虫剂如何与食蚜蚜蝇（Episyrphus balteatus）和食腐蝇（Eristalis tenax）相互作用。这样的理解将使不同化学类别的商用杀虫剂的差异选择性的分子基础得以阐明，从而促进合理设计新的传粉媒介安全化合物。此外，这些信息将有助于开发分子工具来分类、优化和改进早期候选选择以及害虫选择性化合物的合成。学生将接受各种最先进的方法的培训，这些方法受到学术界和工业界雇主的高度追捧，包括分子方法和生物信息学。该学生将在一个由多名博士生和博士后研究人员组成的蓬勃发展的研究环境中工作，并将通过拜耳的链接/安置接触行业。

Chemical insecticides have been used to control insect pests for many decades and remain essential to ensure a supply of affordable food and as part of disease vector control for the foreseeable future.A key requirement for the development of insecticides is that they are pest specific and not harmful to the main pollinator species which play an essential role in ensuring production of seeds in a remarkable range of flowering plants. Recent research on three managed bee species has demonstrated that specific enzymes can also be critically important in determining the sensitivity of bees to insecticides. Specifically, cytochrome P450 enzymes belonging to the CYP9Q and CYP9BU subfamilies have been shown to provide protection to certain insecticides from three different classes including N-cyanoamidine neonicotinoids. This leads to an important question - is the presence of insecticide-degrading P450s universal to all pollinator species, and if not, what are the implications for insecticide sensitivity in species that lack these enzymes? Hoverflies are an important family of pollinators known to visit over half of globally important food crops worth a combined US$300 million to the global economy each year. In addition, they provide ecosystem services not found in bees, related to their aphidophagous or saprophagous larval stages. These stages expose these guilds to unique selective pressures on enzymes to detoxify chemicals found in these environments. This studentship aims to develop a detailed molecular and biochemical understanding of how insecticides interact with the aphidophagous marmalade hoverfly Episyrphus balteatus and the saprophagous dronefly Eristalis tenax. Such understanding will allow the molecular basis of differential selectivity within different chemical classes of commercial insecticides to be elucidated and so facilitate the rational design of novel pollinator-safe compounds. Furthermore, such information will help to develop molecular tools to classify, optimise and improve early candidate selection as well as the synthesis of pest selective compounds. The student will be trained in a variety of state-of-the-art approaches that are highly sought-after by employers in academia and industry including molecular approaches and bioinformatics.The student will be based in a thriving research environment comprising multiple PhD students and post-doctoral researchers and will also benefit from exposure to industry through the Bayer link/placement.