MOLECULAR TECHNOLOGY FOR DEVELOPING DURABLE RESISTANCE TO THE SUGAR BEET ROOT MAGGOT (TETANOPS MYOPAEFORMIS)

Abstract

Sugar beet root maggot (SBRM), Tetanops myopaeformis von Roder, is a major economic insect pest of sugar beet in North America. While several moderately resistant breeding lines have recently been registered, they do not offer complete control. A significant amount of knowledge about how plants protect themselves against insect invasion is being provided by advances being made in bioinformatics and functional genomics, however, complementary molecular studies on insect adaptive mechanisms used to overcome host resistance and develop tolerance to many insecticides are lacking. This study was initiated to establish a transcriptomic profile of SBRM genes and to identify physiologically valuable genes that can serve as targets for bio-insecticides and RNA interference mediated pest control. PCRselect suppressive subtractive hybridization (SSH) was used to produce an annotated SBRM EST dataset as a reference point for genes whose expression is modulated by interactions with resistant or susceptible sugar beet roots. This data will provide new insights into the molecular response elicited by SBRM in interactions with sugar beet roots and will advance the development of novel approaches for more effective SBRM control.