The James Hutton Institute is a beneficiary partner on the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Innovative Training Network project ‘MiRA: Microbe-induced Resistance to Agricultural pests’, which started on 1st December 2017 and is co-ordinated by the University of Copenhagen. The project is funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 programme and offers 15 PhD positions starting in April 2018 at different research institutions and companies in Europe.
Resistance elicitors are generally non-toxic substances that prime a plant’s own resistance mechanisms enabling it to better defend itself against pests and pathogens. Their efficacy is dependent on appropriate use in IPM programmes as they depend on the host plant’s genotype and physiological state.
We have been breeding raspberry varieties for Scotland, UK and Europe for > 40 years. A key trait (conferred by one or more major resistance genes) is for resistance to the main aphid pest, the large raspberry aphid. This strategy has been very successful but over decades the pest has co-evolved resistance-breaking biotypes. We are now at a ‘tipping point’ where the pest can overcome resistance genes in the crop faster than plant breeders can introduce new types of resistance (typically taking 10+ years).
Bacterial pathogens pose a serious threat to either plant health or to food safety. This has the consequence of financial impacts on crop production for pathogens that causes disease on plants, or human health impacts for food-borne pathogens transmitted into the food chain by plants. One of the main challenges to producers is that there are few control options available for reducing or removing bacterial pathogens from plants, and growers have to resort to a limited set of biocides that can cause environmental damage, such as the active ingredient copper oxychloride. This means that a pre-emptive approach is a more sustainable option, e.g. by reducing the risk of pathogens introduction from seeds or transplants and in irrigation water, or for endemic pathogens, using alternative strategies to keep their numbers at manageable, non-harmful levels. These approaches require a degree of monitoring to ensure that the control levels are adequate, since the aim is to keep pathogen levels sufficiently low that they do not cause visible damage to crop plants, or for the food-borne pathogens, that they do not pose a food safety issue.
SCEPTRE Sustainable Crop and Environment Protection - Targeted Research for Edibles
SCEPTRE was a collaborative project that underpinned UK horticultural crop production by focusing on the development and delivery of applied research on high priority disease, pest and weed problems in fruit and vegetable crops in order to support approval of new products and devise integrated pest management (IPM) programmes.
Across the EU tougher pesticide regulations mean that fewer products and few applications are permitted per season. This is mainly driven by very low allowable pesticide residues in food, feed and drink, concerns over general environmental impacts of pesticides and specific issues like the potential contribution of pesticide overuse to pollinator decline. As a result, new research is prioritised at EU and UK level to find biologically derived replacement products that are compatible with other IPM tools, particularly biocontrol agents.
