8. Plant-Virus Tricks Teach Evolutionary Pest Management

Source:

Keim B. Plant-Virus Tricks Teach Evolutionary Pest Management. Wired [Internet]. Wired Science. 2010 Feb 2 [cited 2010 Feb 06]. Available from: http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/02/plant-virus-tricks/#more-17572

The cucumber mosaic virus changes how the host plant smells to attract aphids. The virus makes the plant smell large and healthy, thus, it attracts a large amounts of aphids. However, when the aphids arrive the plant is found to be sickly and of poor quality. The short stay is all that is needed for the aphid to pick up the virus and spread it to other plants. The mode of transmission is the important factor in this discovery, so Penn State University’s Mark Mescher suggest that we should think about managing the evolution instead of directly managing the pest or pathogen. The attraction of aphids to sickly plants is also seen in infected squash plants. The aphids prefer the infected plant, however, they do not stay because the plant is sickly. There are more odor changing relationships found in nature. For example, dutch elm disease infected trees attract insects, Rust fungi infected wheat also attract insects, Hamsters with Leishmaniasis attract sandflies and Malaria infected people attract mosquitoes. This knowledge is important because studies can be done on altering evolution to prevent odor changing.