Abstract
BackgroundPiercing-sucking insects are major vectors of plant viruses causing significant yield losses in crops. Functional genomics of plant resistance to these insects would greatly benefit from the availability of high-throughput, quantitative phenotyping methods.ResultsWe have developed an automated video tracking platform that quantifies aphid feeding behaviour on leaf discs to assess the level of plant resistance. Through the analysis of aphid movement, the start and duration of plant penetrations by aphids were estimated. As a case study, video tracking confirmed the near-complete resistance of lettuce cultivar ‘Corbana’ against Nasonovia ribisnigri (Mosely), biotype Nr:0, and revealed quantitative resistance in Arabidopsis accession Co-2 against Myzus persicae (Sulzer). The video tracking platform was benchmarked against Electrical Penetration Graph (EPG) recordings and aphid population development assays. The use of leaf discs instead of intact plants reduced the intensity of the resistance effect in video tracking, but sufficiently replicated experiments resulted in similar conclusions as EPG recordings and aphid population assays. One video tracking platform could screen 100 samples in parallel.ConclusionsAutomated video tracking can be used to screen large plant populations for resistance to aphids and other piercing-sucking insects.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13007-015-0044-z) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Highlights
Piercing-sucking insects are major vectors of plant viruses causing significant yield losses in crops
We introduced one aphid onto each arena, consisting of an agar substrate almost completely covered by a leaf disc, and recorded 20 arenas simultaneously with a frame rate of 25 frames s−1 (Figure 1, Additional file 1: Figure S1)
For the first time it is shown that automated video tracking of aphid body movement can be used to estimate how often the insects are penetrating plant tissue and are reaching the vascular bundle
Summary
Piercing-sucking insects are major vectors of plant viruses causing significant yield losses in crops. Functional genomics of plant resistance to these insects would greatly benefit from the availability of highthroughput, quantitative phenotyping methods. More than 100 aphid species (Aphididae) are economically significant pest insects and most crops are host to at least one species [1]. Aphids feed on phloem sap, and to reach the phloem they move their stylets between plant cells towards a sieve element, making short punctures in cells along the way. A phloem vessel is reached, aphids can ingest phloem sap continuously for many hours or even days [2]. Aphids inflict little tissue damage, they transmit plant viruses and deplete host plants of photoassimilates and free amino acids [3,4].
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