Institut für ökologische Chemie, Pflanzenanalytik und Vorratsschutz
Potato is an important source of food and raw materials. However, the infestation pressure from insect pests such as aphids, Colorado potato beetles or underground wireworms or new invasive species such as Epitrix is very high and can lead to harvest and yield losses of up to 80%. In view of climate change, this infestation pressure will be exacerbated by shifts in insect development cycles and new invasive species. On the other hand, the required reduction in the use of plant protection products and the increasingly limited availability of effective or approved plant protection products. Many insect pests have now developed resistance to most common chemical pesticides. There is therefore an urgent need to find alternative sources of resistance, as resistance in the current range appears to be underutilized, known or no longer available. Resistance to a wide range of insect pests has been observed in potato species. However, the underlying mechanisms are mostly unknown. The aim of this in-house project is to investigate metabolites and their role in resistance / non-resistance of wild and cultivated potatoes to insect pests such as wireworms and aphids, in order to ultimately utilize these findings in resistance breeding. HPLC-MS Metabolite Profiling is used for the undirected analysis of metabolites in susceptible tissues and species, lines and varieties. Comparisons of the metabolites with observed resistances against wireworms and aphids should provide information about potentially bioactive, resistance-promoting compounds. These substances might be used as metabolic markers in resistance breeding by enhancing their natural occurance in the plant, thus strengthening the plants intrinsic defense capacities. They can benefit biobased plant protection and thus make it possible to save synthetic chemical pesticides. Results should ultimately benefit organic farming by proposing resistance-promoting metabolites as breeding targets for resistant potato lines as well as to propose measures for organic plant protection.
Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture
