Harnessing chemical ecology to address agricultural pest and pollinator: A review

Abstract

Insect pests cause serious economic, yield and food safety problems to managed crops worldwide. Compounding these problems, insect pests often vector pathogenic or toxigenic microbes to plants. Previous work has considered plant−insect and plant−microbe interactions separately. Insect chemical ecology (ICE) evolved as a discipline concerned with plant-insect interactions and also with a powerful specialise in intraspecific pheromone-mediated communication. We propose that these aspects of microbial volatile emission may make these compounds ideal to be used in agricultural applications, as they will be more specific or enhance methods currently utilized in insect control or monitoring. Our survey of microbial volatiles in insect−plant interactions suggests that these emissions not only signal host suitability but may indicate a particular time frame for optimal conditions for both insect and microbe. Bees are the most important pollinators, but over 100,000 invertebrates including butterflies, moths, wasps, flies, and beetles and over 1,000 mammals including birds, reptiles and amphibians, act as pollinators. Unfortunately, pollinators are in decline worldwide. Habitat loss, invasive species, parasites, and pesticides are largely to blame. Pheromones and semiochemicals in General, Consist of a Wide range of organic molecules that could be volatile or non-volatile.