Overview: biotic signalling for smart pest management

Abstract

Biotic signalling refers to species or phylogenetic-clade-specific signals that elicit adaptive and acceptable responses within and among organisms. It is not only the molecular basis of the ecological relationships among different species, such as parasitism, symbiosis and predation, but also serves as ideal targets that can be used to manipulate these ecological relationships. This concept was proposed by a group of scientists from the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and actively pursued in a five-year research project in 2014 funded by the CAS ($40 million), entitled ‘Decoding biotic interactions and mechanism for target management of agricultural pests'. The multi-disciplinary project aimed at a systematic investigation of the intra-species and inter-species and interactions via biotic signalling, with the ultimate goal being the development of novel methods to manage the pest insects and diseases. We hereby propose a topic ‘Biotic signalling sheds light on smart pest control’ as a theme issue for the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B . It contains a total of 18 reviews and research articles under the topic of signalling manipulation for pest management. Unravelling these complex interactions among plants, microbial pathogens and insects holds promise for developing novel strategies to protect crop plants without compromising agricultural productivity and environmental health. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Biotic signalling sheds light on smart pest management’.

Biotechnology and Solutions: Insect-Pest-Resistance Management for Improvement and Development of Bt Cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.)

“…In another study, the mate recognition and localization of the grapevine pest Scaphoideus titanus was prevented by imitating vibrational signals with an artificial noise vibration [171]. These studies indicate that the defense system of plants against pests can be enhanced by manipulating different signals such as quorum-sensing signals through signal transduction and intracellular cascade reactions [169].…”

“…These ecological relationships includes parasitism, symbiosis, and predation that establish complex communications among and within the species through physiological signals, pheromones, kairomones, hormones, metabolites, peptides, proteins, and RNAs [168]. Plants can sense the chemicals released by insects and prepare themselves a defense strategy through secreting anti-feedings, while the herbivorous pests may also develop mechanisms to digest such secondary metabolites or to secrete mitigants to avoid plant response to their attacks [169]. Unraveling such complex biotic relationships among different symbiotic organisms would provide tools to develop sustainable novel insect-control strategies.…”

“…For example, a phytopathogenic bacteria belonging to family Xanthomonadaceae, produces a diffusible factor (DSF) acting as a cell-to-cell communication molecule eliciting an innate immune response in plants [170]. The expression of the enzyme responsible for producing DSF was successfully engineered in tobacco and the sweet orange for resistance against insect pests [169]. In another study, the mate recognition and localization of the grapevine pest Scaphoideus titanus was prevented by imitating vibrational signals with an artificial noise vibration [171].…”

Adaptive Reproductive Strategies of an Ectoparasitoid Sclerodermus guani under the Stress of Its Entomopathogenic Fungus Beauveria bassiana

“…There were complicated interspecific relationships, including parasitism, predation, competition, and even cooperation [2,3]. Interspecies relationships also determined the implementation effect and risk assessment of biological control [4,5]. Parasitoid species may rely on shared common resources (e.g., host species); thus, interactions among these parasitoid species can occur frequently (Appendix A: Figure A1) [6].…”

Polygenic pathogen networks influence transcriptional plasticity in the Arabidopsis–Botrytis pathosystem

“…How hosts and microbes interact depends on a massive and rapid flow of information between the organisms (Kang 2019). For one organism to effectively shift the interaction, this information flow has to be received and transformed into appropriate responses, such as the coordinated and orchestrated action of innumerable signaling molecules, regulatory cascades and metabolic pathways (Botero et al 2018;Ma et al 2021).…”