Management der Minderempfindlichkeit von Apfelwicklerstämmen gegenüber dem Apfelwicklergranulovirus

Das Apfelwicklergranulovirus (CpGV) ist effizientes biologisches Bekämpfungsmittel des Apfelwicklers mit großer Bedeutung im ökologischen und integrierten Kernobstbau. 2005 wurde erstmals eine Resistenz gegen CpGV in einzelnen Anlagen beobachtet. Um geeignete Hilfestellungen für den Obstbau zu entwickeln, wurden verschiedene Aspekte der CpGV-Resistenz aufgeklärt: 1. Bisher wurden mehr als 40 Apfelwicklerpopulationen in Europa mit CpGV-Resistenz gefunden. Sie kommen in Deutschland (26), Frankreich (2), Italien (6), Österreich (2), Schweiz (3), Niederlande (3) und Tschechien (1) vor. Vermutlich handelt es sich in allen Fällen um denselben Resistenztyp. 2. Die Resistenz wird durch einen ungewöhnlichen Vererbungsgang (einfaktoriell, Geschlechtschromosomal und mit einer konzentrationsabhängigen Dominanz) sehr effizient selektiert. 3. Der Resistenzmechanismus liegt in einer frühen Blockade der Virusvermehrung. Resistente Tiere zeigten keinen Fitnessnachteil gegenüber nicht resistenten Tieren in Laborexperimenten. 4. Neue CpGV-Isolate können Resistenz brechen. Viele der resistenzbrechenden Isolate wirken in resistenten Apfelwicklerlarven etwas langsamer als in anfälligen Larven. Dadurch ist auch bei Verwendung resistenzbrechender Tiere mit einem etwas erhöhten Schaden zu rechnen, solange bis die Apfelwicklerpopulation wieder auf ein niedriges Niveau reduziert wurde. Aus den Ergebnissen ergeben sich folgende Empfehlungen: 1. Betriebe ohne CpGV-Resistenz - dies ist die ganz überwiegende Zahl - können konventionelle CpGV-Präparate weiter verwenden. Sobald neue CpGV-Isolate zugelassen sind, sollte auch diese eingesetzt werden, um eine Selektion der bekannten Resistenz zu vermeiden. 2. Betriebe mit CpGV-Resistenz oder begründetem Resistenzverdacht sollten sofort neue resistenzbrechende Isolate verwenden. Diese stehen seit 2006 als Versuchspräparate zur Verfügung, ihre Zulassung wird erwartet. 3. Die Apfelwicklerbekämpfung muß auf eine möglichst breite Basis gestellt werden

Navigating Public Microarray Databases

With the ever-escalating amount of data being produced by genome-wide microarray studies, it is of increasing importance that these data are captured in public databases so that researchers can use this information to complement and enhance their own studies. Many groups have set up databases of expression data, ranging from large repositories, which are designed to comprehensively capture all published data, through to more specialized databases. The public repositories, such as ArrayExpress at the European Bioinformatics Institute contain complete datasets in raw format in addition to processed data, whilst the specialist databases tend to provide downstream analysis of normalized data from more focused studies and data sources. Here we provide a guide to the use of these public microarray resources

Using ecological and field survey data to establish a national list of the wild bee pollinators of crops

The importance of wild bees for crop pollination is well established, but less is known about which species contribute to service delivery to inform agricultural management, monitoring and conservation. Using sites in Great Britain as a case study, we use a novel qualitative approach combining ecological information and field survey data to establish a national list of crop pollinating bees for four economically important crops (apple, field bean, oilseed rape and strawberry). A traits data base was used to establish potential pollinators, and combined with field data to identify both dominant crop flower visiting bee species and other species that could be important crop pollinators, but which are not presently sampled in large numbers on crops flowers. Whilst we found evidence that a small number of common, generalist species make a disproportionate contribution to flower visits, many more species were identified as potential pollinators, including rare and specialist species. Furthermore, we found evidence of substantial variation in the bee communities of different crops. Establishing a national list of crop pollinators is important for practitioners and policy makers, allowing targeted management approaches for improved ecosystem services, conservation and species monitoring. Data can be used to make recommendations about how pollinator diversity could be promoted in agricultural landscapes. Our results suggest agri-environment schemes need to support a higher diversity of species than at present, notably of solitary bees. Management would also benefit from targeting specific species to enhance crop pollination services to particular crops. Whilst our study is focused upon Great Britain, our methodology can easily be applied to other countries, crops and groups of pollinating insects.LH was funded by NERC QMEE CDT. EJB was funded by a BBSRC Ph.D. studentship under grant BB/F016581/1. LB was was supported by the Scholarship Program of the German Federal Environmental Foundation (Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt, DBU, AZ 20014/302). AJC was funded by the BBSRC and Syngenta UK as part of a case award Ph.D. (grant no. 1518739). AE was funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (grant number 405940-115642). DG and A-MK were funded by grant PCIN2014-145-C02-02 (MinECo; EcoFruit project BiodivERsA-FACCE2014-74). MG was supported by Establishing a UK Pollinator Monitoring and Research Partnership (PMRP) a collaborative project funded by Defra, the Welsh and Scottish Governments, JNCC and project partners’. GAdG was funded via research projects BO-11-011.01-051 and BO-43-011.06-007, commissioned by the Dutch Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality. DK was funded by the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs (BO-11-011.01-011). AK-H was funded by the NKFIH project (FK123813), the Bolyai János Fellowship of the MTA, the ÚNKP-19-4-SZIE-3 New National Excellence Program of the Ministry for Innovation and Technology, and together with RF by the Hungarian Scientific Research Fund OTKA 101940. MM was funded by Waitrose & Partners, Fruition PO, and the University of Worcester. MM was funded by grant INIA-RTA2013-00139-C03-01 (MinECo and FEDER). BBP and RFS were funded by the UK Natural Environment Research Council as part of Wessex BESS (ref. NE/J014680/1). NJV was funded by the Walloon Region (Belgium) Direction générale opérationnelle de l’Agriculture, des Ressources naturelles et de l’Environnement (DGO3) for the "Modèle permaculturel" project on biodiversity in micro-farms, FNRS/FWO joint programme EOS — Excellence Of Science CliPS: Climate change and its impact on Pollination Services (project 30947854)". CW was funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) (Project number 405945293). BW was funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) under research programme NE/N018125/1 ASSIST – Achieving Sustainable Agricultural Systems www.assist.ceh.ac.uk. TB and TO are supported by BBSRC, NERC, ESRC and the Scottish Government under the Global Food Security Programme (Grant BB/R00580X/1)

Ecological risk assessment of genetically modified strawberries : the hybridization potential between cultivated and wild strawberries

Natural hybridization is a widespread phenomenon in many plant and animal species complexes and has been acknowledged as an important evolutionary process that can lead to new evolutionary lineages. The introduction of genetically modified (GM) economic plants has raised questions about the potential for transgene escape from GM plants into populations of wild or weedy relatives via hybridization. To date, numerous studies have shown the potential of GM economic plants to hybridize with wild species. In the genus Fragaria (Rosaceae), the potential for hybridization between different species has been demonstrated repeatedly. Although future commercialisation of GM garden strawberries (F. x ananassa Duch.) is very likely, there is limited knowledge about the potential for hybridization between garden strawberries and wild relatives under natural conditions. The goal of my thesis was to assess the hybridization potential between cultivated garden strawberries and wild relatives in Switzerland, and thus to provide a basis for estimating the risks of a potential future cultivation of GM garden strawberries. In Switzerland, the most likely wild candidate species for hybridization with cultivated F. x ananassa seems to be the common woodland strawberry (F. vesca L.). The main research aims of this thesis were: (1)Assessment of the hybridization potential between F. x ananassa and F. vesca (2)Assessment of fitness of hybrid plants and the potential effects of hybridization on natural F. vesca populations To detect past and present natural hybridization between F. x ananassa and F. vesca, a hybrid survey was conducted in the surroundings of farms in Switzerland and southern Germany, where F. x ananassa has been cultivated for at least ten years and wild F. vesca plants occur in the close vicinity. Samples of wild F. vesca plants were analysed with microsatellite markers and ploidy levels of plants were estimated by flow cytometry to identify putative hybrids. Furthermore, F. x ananassa and F. vesca plants were hybridized experimentally to assess the hybridization potential under controlled conditions. No hybrid plants were detected in the field. Experimental hand-crosses yielded some vigorous F. vesca x F. x ananassa hybrid plants but germination and survival rates of hybrids were generally very low. Solitary bees are important pollinators that visit both F. x ananassa and F. vesca plants in the field. To assess whether natural hybridization between F. x ananassa and F. vesca is promoted by the behaviour of pollinators I studied the flower choice behaviour of the red mason bee (Osmia rufa L.) in a greenhouse experiment. Solitary bees did not show a preference for either F. x ananassa or F. vesca. The results suggest that the behaviour of solitary bees does not obstruct gene flow from cultivated to wild strawberries. As a basis for the assessment of fitness of hybrid plants and the potential effects of hybridization on natural F. vesca populations, the demography of wild F. vesca populations was studied. Demographic data were used to parameterise matrix population models, and the importance of different growth parameters for population growth was assessed using prospective (elasticity analyses) and retrospective (life table response experiments) matrix analysis methods. It could be shown that clonal reproduction is of great importance for growth and maintenance of F. vesca populations, whereas sexual reproduction seems to be insignificant for population growth within established populations. Furthermore, growth characteristics of F. vesca x F. x ananassa hybrids and F. vesca plants were directly compared. Different hybrid and F. vesca clones were grown under a competition and a control treatment in a greenhouse. I found that hybrids can exceed F. vesca plants in total biomass production. However, the number of clonal offspring and the biomass proportion that was allocated to clonal reproduction was significantly lower in all hybrid clones under competition and significantly lower for most hybrids in the control treatment. Furthermore, there was a large difference in the timing of clonal reproduction between F. vesca and hybrid plants with clonal reproduction starting later in hybrids. In summary, the results indicate that hybrids have a competitive disadvantage against co-occurring F. vesca plants due to inferior and delayed clonal reproduction. In conclusion, the lack of hybrids at farm survey sites, the low experimental hybrid germination and survival rates and the differences in clonal reproduction parameters between F. vesca and hybrid plants indicate that there is low potential for hybrid establishment under natural conditions. Therefore, it seems that chances for transgene escape from transgenic F. x ananassa cultivars via F. vesca x F. x ananassa hybrids are also low as long as transgene effects can not compensate for any disadvantage of lower and delayed clonal reproduction rates of hybrid plants

Detection of feral GT73 transgenic oilseed rape (Brassica napus) along railway lines on entry routes to oilseed factories in Switzerland

To obtain a reference status prior to cultivation of genetically modified oilseed rape (OSR, Brassica napus L.) in Switzerland, the occurrence of feral OSR was monitored along transportation routes and at processing sites. The focus was set on the detection of (transgenic) OSR along railway lines from the Swiss borders with Italy and France to the respective oilseed processing factories in Southern and Northern Switzerland (Ticino and region of Basel). A monitoring concept was developed to identify sites of largest risk of escape of genetically modified plants into the environment in Switzerland. Transport spillage of OSR seeds from railway goods cars particularly at risk hot spots such as switch yards and (un)loading points but also incidental and continuous spillage were considered. All OSR plants, including their hybridization partners which were collected at the respective monitoring sites were analyzed for the presence of transgenes by real-time PCR. On sampling lengths each of 4.2 and 5.7 km, respectively, 461 and 1,574 plants were sampled in Ticino and the region of Basel. OSR plants were found most frequently along the routes to the oilseed facilities, and in larger amounts on risk hot spots compared to sites of random sampling. At three locations in both monitored regions, transgenic B. napus line GT73 carrying the glyphosate resistance transgenes gox and CP4 epsps were detected (Ticino, 22 plants; in the region of Basel, 159)

Sigillin A, a unique polychlorinated arthropod deterrent from the snow flea Ceratophysella sigillata

The snow flea Ceratophysella sigillata, a winter-active species of springtail, produces unique polychlorinated octahydroisocoumarins to repel predators. The structure of the major compound, sigillin A, was elucidated through isolation, spectroscopic analysis, and X-ray crystallography. Sigillin A showed high repellent activity in a bioassay with predatory ants. A promising approach for the total synthesis of members of this new class of natural compounds was also developed

Using ecological and field survey data to establish a national list of the wild bee pollinators of crops

The importance of wild bees for crop pollination is well established, but less is known about which species contribute to service delivery to inform agricultural management, monitoring and conservation. Using sites in Great Britain as a case study, we use a novel qualitative approach combining ecological information and field survey data to establish a national list of crop pollinating bees for four economically important crops (apple, field bean, oilseed rape and strawberry). A traits data base was used to establish potential pollinators, and combined with field data to identify both dominant crop flower visiting bee species and other species that could be important crop pollinators, but which are not presently sampled in large numbers on crops flowers. Whilst we found evidence that a small number of common, generalist species make a disproportionate contribution to flower visits, many more species were identified as potential pollinators, including rare and specialist species. Furthermore, we found evidence of substantial variation in the bee communities of different crops. Establishing a national list of crop pollinators is important for practitioners and policy makers, allowing targeted management approaches for improved ecosystem services, conservation and species monitoring. Data can be used to make recommendations about how pollinator diversity could be promoted in agricultural landscapes. Our results suggest agri-environment schemes need to support a higher diversity of species than at present, notably of solitary bees. Management would also benefit from targeting specific species to enhance crop pollination services to particular crops. Whilst our study is focused upon Great Britain, our methodology can easily be applied to other countries, crops and groups of pollinating insects