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Arthropod Ecophysiology Group

Climate change, arthropod overwintering and pest outbreaks

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Rapid cold hardening in insecticide susceptible and resistant clones of the aphid Myzus persicae

Adam Petherwick

I developed an interest for insect biology whilst studying for my BSc in Biology, at University College London, after undertaking two research projects looking at fitness in fruit flies. The first project looked at the effect on longevity of calorie-restricted diets in Ceratitis capitata; the second, the effect of male-killing bacteria on female fitness in Drosophila melanogaster (Montenegro, Petherwick, Hurst, & Klaczko, 2006, in press). On completing my degree I moved to the University of Birmingham to undertake a 4yr BBSCR pilot scheme PhD investigating the cold hardiness of the aphid Myzus persicae, under the supervision of Jeff Bale, and advice of Rothamstead Research (Stephen Foster, Richard Harrington and Ian Denholm).

The peach-potato aphid, Myzus persicae, is a major agricultural pest of many non-cereal crops in Europe, as well as world wide. The effects of this pest species upon crops, i.e. direct feeding damage and viral transmission, are intensified by its ability to resist virtually all available insecticides. Despite insect-resistant aphids having a clear advantage over insecticide-susceptible aphids when exposed to insecticides, they may be at a disadvantage with respect to over-wintering survival. For anholocyclic (purely asexual i.e. viviparous parthenogenesis) clones to survive temperate winters they must continue to feed and reproduce throughout the winter; ability possibly hindered in the field if the clone is also insecticide resistant (see Foster, Harrington, Devonshire, Denholm, Clark, Mugglestone, 1997).

Consequently, my PhD seeks to quantify, and compare, the cold hardiness of both insecticide-susceptible and –resistant M. persicae clones. This quantification will look at both pre-freeze mortality (LT₅₀; sub-zero temperature at which survival is 50%) and the ability to rapidly-cold harden (the ability to survive a previously lethal temperature after exposure to 0°C). The outcomes of this study could have important implications for helping to predict potential pest out breaks in the spring, especially if winter temperature are, as predicted, set to increase as a result of climate change.

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