About this Research Topic

Background

Aphids (Hemiptera: Aphidoidea) are one of the most important and destructive agriculture pests causing serious economic losses by both nutrient robbing and transmitting plant viruses. 100 species of Aphididae have exploited the agricultural environment successfully to the extent that they are of significant economic importance, among them 15 aphid species of most agricultural importance. Aphids are piecing-sucking insect pests with the mouthparts (stylets) to penetrate plant cells to feed phloem sap from sieve elements. The feeding process of aphids is similar to pathogen infestation, and plenty of evidence demonstrate that the interplay between aphid and host plants follows the pathogen-plant Zigzag model. During the process of probing and feeding, aphids, like plant pathogens, secreted some salivary proteins as effectors (or elicitors) into their host plants cell intercellularly and intracellularly to mediate aphid-plant interactions, such as eliciting or suppressing plant defense responses. Aphids also vector plant viruses, and the relationship between each organismal pair affects the overall outcome of this biological interaction. Aphids contained endosymbionts, and the symbionts influence interaction between the aphids and their host plants and between aphids and their natural enemies, further impacting this network of biological interactions. Advances in understanding aphids biology, and these interactions at the physiological, molecular, and ecological levels will provide fundamental knowledge, and develop novel green control strategies for insect pests as well as vector pathogens.

This Research Topic on ‘Aphids as Plant Pests: From Biology to Green Control Technology’ aims to bring together updated research articles and reviews that target different levels of biology, ecology, and the interaction of aphids with the factors from the agricultural environment, novel strategies for green control against the insect pests to alterative the situation of overreliance insecticides

• The interaction between the aphids and the (i) endosymbiont, (ii) the vectored virus, as well as (iii) its predator(s) and parasitoid(s), impact the overall outcome of the multi-organism interaction at the physiological, molecular and ecological level.

• Plant resistance to aphid infestation and mechanisms, including how plants recognize aphids, the elicitors and signalling mechanisms, and the genes and regulatory mechanisms.

• Aphid anti-plant defense by manipulating host metabolism, including the effectors involved, as well as the targets in the host plant, and aphid adapt to the secondary metabolite defenses of host plants.

• Potential use and mechanisms of insect pheromone and plant volatiles for push-pull technology, ecological manipulation with plants intercropping, wildflower strips, and biodiversity for enhancing biological control of aphid

• RNAi-based tools for plant protection and aphid control

• Aphids population monitoring and forecasting models with global warming

Keywords: aphid, endosymbiont, phytovirus, natural enemies, plant resistance to aphid, chemical ecology, green control method, IPM

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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