Mechanisms underlying caterpillar feeding behaviour of the agricultural pest Diamondback moth.

Diamondback moth (DBM) devastates important agricultural crops, impacting the production of vegetables and vegetable oil with annual yield losses worth billions of pound sterling. DBM specialize on cruciferous plants (including cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, Brussels sprouts, mustard, and canola) and have increased resistance to the 'mustard oil bomb' defence pathways deployed by these hosts. Since daily rhythms have been observed for both plant defence and DBM activity it is of interest how these interact and are determined by environmental rhythms. In particular, this BBSRC CASE project will study how both herbivory and circadian gene expression rhythms in DBM caterpillars are determined by both environmental rhythms and rhythmic pest-plant interactions. In collaboration with the CASE partner (RHS, Wisley) experiments will be conducted to identify DBM susceptibility for different Brassica in semi-field conditions and this will be complemented by studying the impact of relevant mutations impacting plant defence pathways on DBM herbivory in laboratory conditions.