An Acylsucrose-Producing Tomato Line Derived from the Wild Species Solanum pimpinellifolium Decreases Fitness of the Whitefly Trialeurodes vaporariorum.

María J. Rodríguez-López,Enrique Moriones,Rafael Fernández-Muñoz

doi:10.3390/insects11090616

Abstract

Simple SummaryThe greenhouse whitefly, Trialeurodes vaporariorum is an insect pest of many plant crops including tomato and is especially harmful because it is a vector for a number of plant viral diseases. In this paper, an improved tomato line bred to produce glandular trichomes that exudate the deterrent compounds acylsucroses, which was introgressed from a wild tomato species, was demonstrated to decrease fitness of the insect and showed as a means for controlling the pests and, indirectly, could be an aid to reduce virus transmission to tomato plants.A combination of biological control and host plant resistance would be desirable for optimally controlling the greenhouse whitefly, Trialeurodes vaporariorum in tomato crops. Whitefly settlement preference, oviposition, and survivorship were evaluated on ABL 10-4 and ‘Moneymaker’, two nearly-isogenic tomato lines with, and without, whitefly-resistance traits based on type IV leaf glandular trichomes derived from the tomato wild species Solanum pimpinellifolium, respectively. Significantly reduced preference of T. vaporariorum adult whiteflies for ABL 10-4 leaves was observed. Moreover, T. vaporariorum altered its abaxial–adaxial settling performance on leaves of ABL 10-4 plants. A significantly lower tendency to settle on abaxial leaf surface was observed in ABL 10-4 compared to Moneymaker plants. Furthermore, T. vaporariorum deposited fewer eggs and exhibited a significantly reduced egg to adult survivorship in ABL 10-4 than in Moneymaker plants. Therefore, reduced fitness and distorted performance were observed for T. vaporariorum on ABL 10-4 tomato plants supporting that type IV leaf glandular trichomes might protect them from this pest and, indirectly, from the viruses it transmits.

Highlights

The greenhouse whitefly, Trialeurodes vaporariorum Westwood (Hemiptera, Aleyrodidae), is a major insect pest of global importance in greenhouse-grown vegetables and ornamental cash crops.It is associated with damage to plants during feeding on plant phloem and by excreting honeydew that covers leaf foliage reducing transpiration and favoring the development of sooty mold, which reduces photosynthetic activity and crop quality [1,2,3]
As the behavior of T. vaporariorum is known to be affected by plant volatile cues [52], here we investigated whether the presence of type IV leaf glandular trichomes and acylsugar secretion traits bred in domesticated tomato from S. pimpinellifolium, can help to deter this whitefly as it does with
Background was achieved in the advanced backcross line (BC5 S2 ) ABL 10-4 (Figure 1B) while no such while no such glandular trichomes are present in the background genotype (Moneymaker) plants glandular trichomes are present in the background genotype (Moneymaker) plants (Figure 1A)

Summary

Introduction

The greenhouse whitefly, Trialeurodes vaporariorum Westwood (Hemiptera, Aleyrodidae), is a major insect pest of global importance in greenhouse-grown vegetables and ornamental cash crops. It is associated with damage to plants during feeding on plant phloem and by excreting honeydew that covers leaf foliage reducing transpiration and favoring the development of sooty mold, which reduces photosynthetic activity and crop quality [1,2,3]. The most serious damage caused by the greenhouse whitefly is the transmission of a number of viral diseases in different crop species [4]. In tomato plants (Solanum lycopersicum L.), T. vaporariorum is vector of plant viruses of the genera. The crinivirus tomato chlorosis virus (ToCV) is a major emerging virus worldwide [4,9]. The direct and indirect damages caused by T. vaporariorum can result in significant tomato yield losses [10,11]

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