Novel dual-action biopesticide for wheat

Wheat is one of the most commercially important crops in the UK, but yield is greatly constrained by fungal diseases and insect pests. The cereal aphids _Rhopalosiphum_ _padi_ and _Sitobion avenae_ are major pests of wheat and cause yield losses through direct feeding on crops and transmission of viruses including BYDV and CYDV. This can cause large economic losses, e.g. BYDV would cost the UK wheat industry £136M per year if left untreated. Current control methods rely on synthetic chemical pesticides, but with regulatory constraints and increasing levels of resistance, new solutions are urgently needed.

This project aims to identify fungal strains that have activity against both insect and fungal pests. It will build on existing work being done by FA-Bio to develop novel biofungicides, by developing a dual-action biofungicide and bioinsecticide to target pests and diseases in UK cereals. A dual-action product would have significant benefits for farmers including reducing the costs associated with multiple applications of chemical pesticides, reducing mechanical damage from repeated spray applications and reducing crop yield losses.

This project will carry out laboratory trials to identify fungal strains that cause mortality in _R. padi_ and _S. avenae_ which also have biofungicidal activity. The ability to scale-up production of these fungi will also be tested as will their shelf life properties, to ensure they are compatible with current industry production standards. The most promising fungal isolates from lab-based trials will be used in glasshouse trials to test their efficacy against aphids on wheat in a controlled environment. Following this, fungal isolates will be tested in field trials for their ability to protect wheat from insect pests (_R .padi_ and _S. avenae_) and fungal diseases (such as take-all and Fusarium head blight). Following these experiments, the best performing isolates will be selected for commercialisation.