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Abstract

Application of chemical pesticides in agriculture represents one of the major costs of agricultural production and is a key source of environmental pollution, destruction of wildlife and introduction of carcinogens into the food chain. Our current gap in knowledge about pest genetics, genomics and plant-pest interactions is a major obstacle for the development of alternative pest control strategies. To circumvent these problems we are developing new pest control methods by taking advantage of a novel pest genomic resource the whole-genome sequence of a major agricultural pest, the Two Spotted Spider Mite Tetranychus urticae.