title: The prospect of applying chemical elicitors and plant strengtheners to enhance the biological control of crop pests.
abstract: An imminent food crisis reinforces the need for novel strategies to increase crop yields worldwide. Effective control of pest insects should be part of such strategies, preferentially with reduced negative impact on the environment and optimal protection and utilization of existing biodiversity. Enhancing the presence and efficacy of native biological control agents could be one such strategy. Plant strengthener is a generic term for several commercially available compounds or mixtures of compounds that can be applied to cultivated plants in order to 'boost their vigour, resilience and performance'. Studies into the consequences of boosting plant resistance against pests and diseases on plant volatiles have found a surprising and dramatic increase in the plants' attractiveness to parasitic wasps. Here, we summarize the results from these studies and present new results from assays that illustrate the great potential of two commercially available resistance elicitors. We argue that plant strengtheners may currently be the best option to enhance the attractiveness of cultivated plants to biological control agents. Other options, such as the genetic manipulation of the release of specific volatiles may offer future solutions, but in most systems, we still miss fundamental knowledge on which key attractants should be targeted for this approach.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Fundamental and Applied Research in Chemical Ecology, Institute of Biology, University of Neuchâtel, , Rue Emile-Argand 11, CP158, Neuchâtel 2009, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Islam S
authors.initials: IS
authors.lastname: Sobhy
authors.forename: Matthias
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Erb
authors.forename: Yonggen
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Lou
authors.forename: Ted C J
authors.initials: TC
authors.lastname: Turlings
mesh_terms: D016573:Agrochemicals / Q000494:pharmacology*; D018556:Crops, Agricultural / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000187:drug effects / Q000469:parasitology / Q000502:physiology*; D060467:Disease Resistance / Q000187:drug effects*; D008401:Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry; D016013:Likelihood Functions; D010572:Pest Control, Biological / Q000379:methods* / Q000639:trends; D010935:Plant Diseases / Q000469:parasitology*; D055549:Volatile Organic Compounds / Q000032:analysis; D003313:Zea mays / Q000187:drug effects / Q000469:parasitology
chemical_list: D016573:Agrochemicals; D055549:Volatile Organic Compounds
keywords: biological control; crop protection; elicitors; parasitoids; plant strengtheners; plant volatiles