Research project to explore innovations in crop protection against insects
The European Research Council (ERC) has announced the winners of its latest Consolidator Grant competition, with a total of €655 million awarded to Europe’s top researchers to aid in the development of their research projects.
Dr Bos, a principal investigator in the Division of Plant Sciences and the James Hutton Institute based in Invergowrie, and her project, APHIDTRAP, will explore and develop new ways to provide crop protection against insects. The grant, worth almost €2 million, will allow her research team to take new directions to answer important questions on how insects such as greenfly and blackfly, commonly known as aphids, are such successful pests.
Current aphid control relies almost exclusively on insecticides, which are costly, damaging to the environment and to which aphids develop resistance. Dr Bos and her team are interested in understanding the molecular dialogue that takes place between plants and aphids to come up with new solutions.
“This project is building on years of work by members of my team, past and present, and without them this would not have been possible,” said Dr Bos.
“The key questions that drive APHIDTRAP are building on previous findings that aphids can actively promote host susceptibility using effector proteins. The function of these effector proteins is based on association with host proteins and modification of their activity. The next step is to try and understand how these protein-protein interactions take place, and what the downstream consequences are with regards to susceptibility”, Dr Bos added.
