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Frontiers of Agricultural Science and Engineering >> 2022, Volume 9, Issue 1 doi: 10.15302/J-FASE-2021431

CROP PROTECTION OPENS UP NEW ERA OF CONSERVATION AND UTILIZATION OF GREEN OPTIONS

1. State Key Laboratory for Biology of Plant Diseases and Insect Pests, Institute of Plant Protection, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100193, China

2. Guangdong Laboratory for Lingnan Modern Agriculture (Shenzhen Branch), Agricultural Genomics Institute at Shenzhen, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Shenzhen 518172, China

3. Plant Protection College, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China

4. Key Laboratory of Pesticide & Chemical Biology, Ministry of Education, International Joint Research Center for Intelligent Biosensor Technology and Health, Central China Normal University, Wuhan 430079, China

Available online: 2021-11-30

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Abstract

China is the largest agricultural producer in the world. Reducing yield losses caused by pests is an important issue and major challenge for China, especially when confronting global climate change, biological invasions and declining agricultural biodiversity of recent decades. Wang et al. (this issue) summarized the impacts of changing climate on two staple crops in China, wheat and rice (https://doi.org/FASE-2021432). They reviewed the impacts of climate change on crops, crop pests and crop diseases. Basically, increased temperature would reduce crop yields and increase pest damage. Biological invasions have become a serious threat to the agriculture worldwide. Developing approaches for monitoring and controlling invasive pests, such as fall armyworm, has been recognized as high priority for China. The excessive use of highly toxic pesticides has caused considerable damage to the environment and biodiversity, which is also one of the many contributors to the increasing outbreaks of pests and diseases. In addition, understanding interaction between crop pests and plant diseases is another critical challenge for agriculture. About 80% plant viruses can be transmitted by crop pest vectors such as aphids, whiteflies and other hemipteran pests. Therefore, to solve the problem of crop pests and diseases, suitable green crop protection methods have been identified as a key components of sustainable development. This special issue of Frontiers of Agricultural Science and Engineering outlines potential conservation and utilization of green options for crop protection.

To prevent outbreaks of crop pests, an advanced monitoring and early warning system could be the first step in crop protection. The use of science and technology in monitoring and early warning of major crop pests provides better pest management and acts as a fundamental part of an integrated plant protection strategy to achieve the goal of sustainable development of agriculture. Wu et al. (this issue) summarized the fundamental information on pest monitoring and early warning in China by documenting the history of research and application, Chinese laws and regulations related to plant protection, and the National Monitoring and Early Warning System, with the purpose of presenting the Chinese model as an example of how to promote regional management of crop pests, especially cross border pests such as fall armyworm and locust, by international cooperation across pest-impacted countries (https://doi.org/10.15302/J-FASE-2021411). They provide an overview of long-term Chinese efforts in the fight against major pests and to present the country’s experience in crop pest monitoring and early warning technology to the world.

Field management is a traditional conservation agriculture technique on plant protection such as no-till cropping, crop rotation, intercropping and cover cropping. Shi et al. (this issue) found that soil solarization is an environmental-friendly promising strategy that achieved complete mortality to the larvae of Bradysia cellarum (https://doi.org/10.15302/J-FASE-2021402). Crop rotation, intercropping and cover cropping of different crops or plants could help to reduce the outbreak of crop pests and diseases. Wang et al. (this issue) summarized the interactions and trade-offs between plants and entomophagous arthropods, and discussed a landscape management method by sowing flowering plants in agricultural fields (https://doi.org/10.15302/J-FASE-2021427). However, such methods are limited when crop pests have already become well established in crop fields.

Pesticides are widely used in the crop protection. The ideal pesticide should have high effectiveness in the control crop pests but low toxicity to non-target organisms. In this case, biopesticides including biochemical pesticides, microbial pesticides and plant-incorporated protectants are considered to be potential ideal pesticides for crop protection. Biochemical pesticides are the naturally occurring substances, they are derived from animals, plants and microorganisms. Microbial pesticides mainly rely on bacteria, fungi, virus or protozoans as the active agent. They are environment-friendly biopesticides with high effectiveness and species-specificity, and have been commercialized worldwide, for example, Bacillus thuringiensis. Plant-incorporated protectants are products that are genetically incorporated into plant tissues including chemicals, proteins or dsRNA for pest control or anti-microbial activity. Qu et al. (this issue) systematically introduced bioinsecticides for pest control and discussed current constraints that prevent bioinsecticides from being widely used and proposed the future research directions in this issue (https://doi.org/10.15302/J-FASE-2021404). Xu et al. (this issue) optimized synthesis process of an anti-plant-virus candidate drug NK0238, and evaluated the antivirus activity and environmental safety of this product (https://doi.org/10.15302/J-FASE-2021390). Zhu et al. (this issue) investigated a new family of natural cyclic lipodepsipeptides with potent activity against Gram-positive bacteria. By genetic manipulation of accessory genes in the WAP biosynthetic gene cluster, new WAP-8294As were produced in Lysobacter, which confirmed the possibility to expand the spectrum of the biocontrol compounds (https://doi.org/10.15302/J-FASE-2021410). In addition, structural biology studies on action targets provides important insights on molecular functions. Using a structure-based drug design strategy, Zheng et al. (this issue) prepared a battery of novel triketone-quinoxaline compounds, which could be potentially applied to design new herbicides targeting p-hydroxyphenylpyruvate dioxygenase (https://doi.org/10.15302/J-FASE-2021401).

With the development and application of new biotechnology in agriculture, opportunities for crop protection are great becoming more abundant, opening new approaches, such as genetic engineering, to improve the plant resistance against crop pests and diseases. It is now feasible to control pests by directly targeting genes that are essential for the development and survival of insects and pathogenic microorganisms, for example, the sterile insect technique based on gene-drive and RNA interference using dsRNA. In addition, it has been confirmed that some gene families are effective targets that indirectly contribute to crop pests and diseases protection by targeting the plant biochemical synthesis or virus transmitting pathways. In this case, identifying new genes associated with the interaction between crops, insects, microorganisms should be a key focus, both now and in the future. Huang et al. (this issue) summarized the recent research on the interaction between plant viruses and insect vectors, and discussed the potential control strategies to prevent the transmission of insect-vectored plant viruses using RNAi technology, gene editing technology and gene-driven technology (https://doi.org/10.15302/J-FASE-2021389).

We anticipate that the ideas and approaches highlighted in this issue will help broaden reader’s perspectives on every increasing prospect for a new era of sustainable and environment-friendly agricultural pest management.

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