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Zusammenfassung:
In response to herbivore attack, plants have evolved a variety of mechanisms to deter herbivore feeding, which prevent the herbivores from jeopardizing the plant's health, reproduction, and survival. The two-spotted spider mite Tetranychus urticae is a generalist herbivore and major agricultural pest that sucks out the plant cell's contents leaving small light-coloured punctures or spots on their leaves. Furthermore, the spider mite is a newly developed model organism whose whole genome is currently being sequenced and in the near future, will provide tools for molecular analysis of its development, physiology and metabolism. Along with the molecular and genetic tools available in Arabidopsis thaliana, studies analyzing Arabidopsis and spider mite interactions will provide a unique opportunity to perform novel genetic and genomic studies on both sides of this plant-pest interaction. The main objective of my research is to characterize damage on Arabidopsis plants upon spider mite feeding. This includes characterization of the differential resistance among natural Arabidopsis accessions to spider mite damage, the mapping of the genes responsible for the variation in susceptibility between Ler and Col, and profiling the transcriptome of naturally resistant and susceptible Arabidopsis accessions. A genetic dissection of mite-plant interactions could provide insight into the signalling and transcriptional basis of plant defences used against herbivores. In addition, genome-wide sequences of spider mites will lend themselves to the analysis of the transcriptome's response to host-plant defensive compounds. Ultimately, this research will aid in our understanding of plant-pest interactions, and provide us with opportunities to control pests in an environmentally-friendly and energy-efficient manner.
