Biological control interventions reduce pest abundance and crop damage while maintaining natural enemies in sub-Saharan Africa: a meta-analysis (2022)
Journal Article
Ratto, F., Bruce, T., Chipabika, G., Mwamakamba, S., Mkandawire, R., Khan, Z., …Sait, S. (2022). Biological control interventions reduce pest abundance and crop damage while maintaining natural enemies in sub-Saharan Africa: a meta-analysis. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2022.1695

Insect pests are a major challenge to smallholder crop production in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), where access to synthetic pesticides, which are linked to environmental and health risks, is often limited. Biological control interventions could offer a... Read More about Biological control interventions reduce pest abundance and crop damage while maintaining natural enemies in sub-Saharan Africa: a meta-analysis.

Biological control interventions and botanical pesticides for insect pests of crops in sub-Saharan Africa: A mapping review (2022)
Journal Article
Ratto, F., Bruce, T., Chipabika, G., Mwamakamba, S., Mkandawire, R., Khan, Z., …Sait, S. M. (2022). Biological control interventions and botanical pesticides for insect pests of crops in sub-Saharan Africa: A mapping review. Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems, 6, Article ARTN 883975. https://doi.org/10.3389/fsufs.2022.883975

<jats:p>Agricultural productivity can be increased sustainably in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) by reducing crop losses due to insect pest damage. As an alternative to environmentally-damaging chemical pesticides, biological control interventions and bota... Read More about Biological control interventions and botanical pesticides for insect pests of crops in sub-Saharan Africa: A mapping review.

Vertical farming systems bring new considerations for pest and disease management (2020)
Journal Article
Roberts, J., Bruce, T., Monaghan, J., Pope, T., Leather, S., & Beacham, A. (2020). Vertical farming systems bring new considerations for pest and disease management. Annals of Applied Biology, 226 - 232. https://doi.org/10.1111/aab.12587

Abstract Vertical farming is an emerging area of food production that aims to provide sustainable intensification of agriculture by maximising the obtainable yield per unit area of land. This approach commonly utilises stacked horizontal levels of cr... Read More about Vertical farming systems bring new considerations for pest and disease management.

Foundational and Translational Research Opportunities to Improve Plant Health. (2017)
Journal Article
Cameron, D., Dangl, J., Dinesh-Kumar, S., Edwards, R., Eves-van den Akker, S., Gassmann, W., …Torrance, L. (2017). Foundational and Translational Research Opportunities to Improve Plant Health. Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions, 515 - 516. https://doi.org/10.1094/MPMI-01-17-0010-CR

Reader Comments | Submit a Comment The white paper reports the deliberations of a workshop focused on biotic challenges to plant health held in Washington, D.C. in September 2016. Ensuring health of food plants is critical to maintaining the quality... Read More about Foundational and Translational Research Opportunities to Improve Plant Health..

Cucumber mosaic virus and its 2b protein alter emission of host volatile organic compounds but not aphid vector settling in tobacco. (2017)
Journal Article
Tungadi, T., Groen, S., Murphy, A., Pate, A., Iqbal, J., Bruce, T., …Carr, J. (2017). Cucumber mosaic virus and its 2b protein alter emission of host volatile organic compounds but not aphid vector settling in tobacco. Virology Journal, 14, Article 91. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12985-017-0754-0

BACKGROUND: Aphids, including the generalist herbivore Myzus persicae, transmit cucumber mosaic virus (CMV). CMV (strain Fny) infection affects M. persicae feeding behavior and performance on tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum), Arabidopsis thaliana and cucu... Read More about Cucumber mosaic virus and its 2b protein alter emission of host volatile organic compounds but not aphid vector settling in tobacco..

TPS46, a Rice Terpene Synthase Conferring Natural Resistance to Bird Cherry-Oat Aphid, Rhopalosiphum padi (Linnaeus). (2017)
Journal Article
Sun, Y., Huang, X., Ning, Y., Jing, W., Bruce, T., Qi, F., …Guo, Y. (2017). TPS46, a Rice Terpene Synthase Conferring Natural Resistance to Bird Cherry-Oat Aphid, Rhopalosiphum padi (Linnaeus). Frontiers in Plant Science, 110 - ?. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2017.00110

Plant terpene synthases (TPSs) are key enzymes responsible for terpene biosynthesis, and can play important roles in defense against herbivore attack. In rice, the protein sequence of TPS46 was most closely related to maize TPS10. However, unlike mai... Read More about TPS46, a Rice Terpene Synthase Conferring Natural Resistance to Bird Cherry-Oat Aphid, Rhopalosiphum padi (Linnaeus)..

Contrasting Roles of Deoxynivalenol and Nivalenol in Host-Mediated Interactions between Fusarium graminearum and Sitobion avenae (2016)
Journal Article
Drakulic, J., Kahar, M., Ajigboye, O., Bruce, T., & Ray, R. (2016). Contrasting Roles of Deoxynivalenol and Nivalenol in Host-Mediated Interactions between Fusarium graminearum and Sitobion avenae. Toxins, https://doi.org/10.3390/toxins8120353

Fusarium graminearum is the predominant causal species of Fusarium head blight in Europe and North America. Different chemotypes of the species exist, each producing a plethora of mycotoxins. Isolates of differing chemotypes produce nivalenol (NIV) a... Read More about Contrasting Roles of Deoxynivalenol and Nivalenol in Host-Mediated Interactions between Fusarium graminearum and Sitobion avenae.

Virus Infection of Plants Alters Pollinator Preference: A Payback for Susceptible Hosts? (2016)
Journal Article
Groen, S., Jiang, S., Murphy, A., Cunniffe, N., Westwood, J., Davey, M., …Carr, J. (2016). Virus Infection of Plants Alters Pollinator Preference: A Payback for Susceptible Hosts?. PLOS pathogens a peer-reviewed open-access journal published by the Public Library of Science, e1005790 - ?. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.ppat.1005790

Plant volatiles play important roles in attraction of certain pollinators and in host location by herbivorous insects. Virus infection induces changes in plant volatile emission profiles, and this can make plants more attractive to insect herbivores,... Read More about Virus Infection of Plants Alters Pollinator Preference: A Payback for Susceptible Hosts?.

An Indirect Defence Trait Mediated through Egg-Induced Maize Volatiles from Neighbouring Plants. (2016)
Journal Article
Mutyambai, D., Khan, Z., Midega, C., Pickett, J., Bruce, T., & van den Berg, J. (2016). An Indirect Defence Trait Mediated through Egg-Induced Maize Volatiles from Neighbouring Plants. PloS one, e0158744 - ?. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0158744

Attack of plants by herbivorous arthropods may result in considerable changes to the plant's chemical phenotype with respect to emission of herbivore-induced plant volatiles (HIPVs). These HIPVs have been shown to act as repellents to the attacking i... Read More about An Indirect Defence Trait Mediated through Egg-Induced Maize Volatiles from Neighbouring Plants..

The CROPROTECT project and wider opportunities to improve farm productivity through web-based knowledge exchange. (2016)
Journal Article
Bruce. (2016). The CROPROTECT project and wider opportunities to improve farm productivity through web-based knowledge exchange. Food and Energy Security, 89 - 96. https://doi.org/10.1002/fes3.80

A key global 21st century challenge is to maximize agricultural production while minimizing use of resources such as land, water, and energy to meet rising demand for produce. To meet this challenge, while also adapting to climate change, agriculture... Read More about The CROPROTECT project and wider opportunities to improve farm productivity through web-based knowledge exchange..