Western flower thrips (WFT) Frankliniella occidentalis, an invasive, cosmopolitan pest poses a significant threat to production agriculture worldwide. The WFT threat is further exacerbated by tomato spotted wilt virus, a pandemic phytopathogen estimated to cause over a billion-dollar annual crop losses in the US alone. To manage both antagonists, the current intensive use of pesticides is unsustainable as it leads to a suite of issues: pesticide resistance development in thrips, high crop production costs and environmental safety. Single gene TSWV resistant cultivars of tomato and pepper were deployed worldwide, but the emergence of multiple resistance breaking TSWV strains have wreaked havoc in recent years. Our lab is currently using a novel, small, independent-mobile RNA (iRNA) to devise a tailored, highly specific pest management strategy against WFT and TSWV. We have developed several iRNA-small interfering RNA (siRNA) constructs targeting genes of WFT critical for regulating a multiplicity of processes and those of TSWV critical for replication, movement and encapsidation in planta and for virus binding in thrips. The data on silencing of TSWV and WFT target genes and subsequent reduction in their replication/fitness will be presented. This proof-of-concept data is the critical first step evaluating the efficacy of iRNA as a next generation biopesticide.
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