破坏性作物害虫的基因组成

[内罗毕]研究人员已经解码了传播植物的粉虱物种的遗传组成diseases和损害农作物，提出了应对破坏性害虫的希望。

粉虱，或Bemisia tabaci, is one of the top 100 pests known to damage crops such as tomato, cassava and cotton, threatening食品安全in low- and middle-income countries, according to scientists.

“非洲木薯粉蝇物种负责矢量（或托管）造成两种持续且毁灭性大流行的植物病毒。”

约翰·科尔文（John Colvin），自然资源研究所

粉丝的解锁基因组or genetic make-up resulted from the work of more than 50 scientists from the African Cassava Whitefly Project (ACWP), led by the Natural Resources Institute of the UK-based University of Greenwich.

John Colvin, a professor of entomology and plant virus epidemiology at the Natural Resources Institute, who leads the team, says: “African cassava whitefly species are responsible for vectoring [or hosting] the plant viruses that have caused two ongoing and devastating pandemics: cassava mosaic disease and cassava brown streak disease.

“Estimates for resulting production losses in nine East and Central African countries including Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda are as high as 47 per cent and the areas affected are continuing to expand, resulting in hunger, recurrent famines and annual losses of more than US$1.25 billion.”

In a study undertaken between 2014 and 2021, researchers from the ACWP collected cassava field populations of the whitefly species in India, Nigeria and Uganda. The colonies were then selectively inbred in quarantine facilities. Researchers determined the order of the chemical building blocks that make up the genetic information of the whitefly, a process called genome sequencing.

科尔文告诉SciDev.Net自1990年代以来，东非和中非木薯种植地区的非洲木薯粉丝增加了。

The researchers say that whitefly is a threat to farmers globally, and causes enormous annual economic losses in vegetable, cotton and grain legume cropping systems.

“The biggest group of stakeholders affected by this problem are Sub-Saharan Africa cassava growers, who are predominantly subsistence farmers,” Colvin explains.

Sharon van Brunschot, visiting fellow in agricultural entomology and plant pathology at the Natural Resources Institute, says that whitefly adults are tiny and field populations are highly heterogeneous, making it difficult to sequence and successfully assemble the genomes.

“We overcame these significant technical obstacles and these are the first high-quality genomes ofB. tabaci使用长阅读测序生成technologyand from highly inbred whitefly colonies,” van Brunschot tellsSciDev.Net.

“这些发现在当今的背景下（用于在中期和长期内创建和实施粉虱控制方法）已经达到了很大的影响。”

Joseph M.K. Mulema, senior scientist, research at the Centre for Agriculture and Bioscience International (CABI, the父组织SciDev.Net）说，这一发现对于了解粉虱的整个基因组至关重要。

他补充说，这些发现将改善对向量与其托管病毒之间发生的基因相互作用的理解，从而有可能创建各种管理干预措施。

“Some of the crops to which they transmit viruses such as cassava, sweet potato, tomato, cotton, beans, cabbage, kale and watermelon heavily support livelihoods in Sub-Saharan Africa,” explains Mulema.

“Policymakers need to fast-track biosafety政策in countries where they have been developed such as Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia. They need to [support] state-of-the-art molecular breeding programmes,” says Mulema.

这件作品由Scidev.net的撒哈拉以南非洲英语桌子制作。