A New Biopesticide in the Making To Fight Spotted Wing Drosophila
A Michigan State University researcher has received a $325,000 grant from USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture to develop a yeast-based biopesticide that targets spotted wing drosophila (SWD), an invasive pest of berries and tree fruits.
Julianna Wilson, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Entomology and tree fruit specialist with MSU Extension, leads the multistate team. Partnering on the project is Molly Duman Scheel, a Professor of medical and molecular genetics at Indiana University.
Researchers are striving to create a yeast-based biopesticide that is built on a model proven effective in other fly and mosquito species. The product works by interfering with the pests’ ribonucleic acid (RNA) protein translation. Wilson says this type of product is uniquely effective compared to conventional pesticides because it focuses on gene expression in target organisms, while leaving non-target organisms unharmed.
A native of East Asia, SWD was first detected in North America in 2008. MSU researchers discovered the pests in West Michigan in 2010, which have since wreaked havoc on growers of soft-fleshed fruits such as berries and cherries.
“It is hard to think of any other invasive species in recent memory that has caused as rapid of a disruption to integrated pest management programs in as many crops as SWD,” Wilson says.
For the new project, yeast will be used as the foundation because of its attract-and-kill properties for SWD. Scheel has already identified a yeast strain that’s toxic to SWD but will not harm non-target organisms.
For the first objective, researchers will scale up production of the biopesticide for laboratory and field testing.
Secondly, the team will examine whether the biopesticide can outcompete other potential attractants, as well as the durability of the attractant qualities, ensuring that they last for an entire growing season. The effects the product has on other insects, including SWD parasitoids, also will be evaluated.
The third objective will be to assess and define a deployment strategy, which researchers hypothesize will be along the margins of orchards adjacent to the areas from which SWD are expected to emigrate.
Finally, the team will use Extension resources to convey the effectiveness of the newly developed biopesticide to fight spotted wing drosophila and work to gain support for its implementation.
While the project will take place in Michigan and Indiana, researchers say the outcomes should be relevant to growers worldwide.
For more, continue reading at canr.msu.edu.
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