INTOMED - Innovative tools to combat crop pests in the Mediterranean

INTOMED will identify, develop, validate and promote innovative, environment-friendly IPM tools for the control of major pests in economically important Mediterrenean crops to promote sustainable food production. The Mediterranean Region is a hotspot for biodiversity but it is also a rich and well-known center of origin and dispersion for virulent plant and animal pests and diseases. ‘Diseases are increasing under the influence of climate change and of the intensification of trade flows in the Mediterranean. Plant and animal diseases and pests cause significant decreases in yield, quality and safety of Mediterranean crops, in particular fruit, cereal and vegetables and of animal productions, with strong economic and social consequences. ‘When a new disease breaks out, it is already generally too late to find solutions. Scientific knowledge has to be obtained in order to understand outbreaks phenomena and to develop preventive solutions as well as Integrated Pest Management solutions. In addition, a better understanding of the ecology and physiology of pests and pathogens, and the interactions between hosts, pests and pathogens, and other organisms at multiple trophic levels is needed and tackling these challenges requires trans-disciplinary research, involving plant/animal health specialists. Finally, social sciences to understand the determinants of current situation and study the acceptability of the proposed solutions should be involved. Stakeholders of the human and animal health sectors, taking into account ecology and environment within an One Health paradigm should be involved

INTOMED will deal with aggressive pests (often increasing their populations above economic injury levels) in the Mediterranean region and worldwide in targeted crops of high economic importance. Both invasive and aggressive pests and pathogens of vegetables and fruit trees are included in this project. Outbreaks of these diseases and pests can be the consequence of the new climate change conditions and consist important threats that can cause significant decreases in crop yields and quality if left uncontrolled. Food security in relation to these pests currently relies on the use of chemicals thus threatening human health and the environment. INTOMED will help to understand and confront pest outbreaks phenomena by generating new knowledge on plant-microbe interactions. The tools (BM and MIT) developed could be included in a preventive IPM scheme of pest outbreaks, i.e. apply before infestation (BM) or just after the onset of population increase (MIT), the latter also in curative pest control. INTOMED will study tripartite and tritrophic interactions between plants, microbes, arthropod pests/pathogens, also with other organisms e.g. natural enemies (predators/parasitoids) with the aim to understand the ecology and physiology of such interactions as well as the underlying mechanisms, using both targeted and untargeted omics approaches. INTOMED consortium includes experts from different disciplines such as ecology, entomology, plant physiology, molecular biology, agronomy, plant pathology, sociology and agro-economy, biotechnology, and bioinformatics. We will perform a socio-economic analysis to assess the current situation and also study the acceptability of the proposed tools in the different Mediterranean countries participating to the consortium. Gender will be specifically considered as a key factor in the acceptability of the proposed tools and risk perception. Tools proposed in this project are sustainable (mainly based on the exploitation of natural plant defenses and multi-trophic interactions) and could be incorporated in preventive IPM schemes of pests/pathogens outbreaks (MIT when pests in low populations, BM also as preventive tools). A multi-actor approach is proposed in this project where stakeholders from different countries that participate in the consortium will have a prominent role in attending INTOMED think-tank meetings and purpose-organized workshops and conferences. They wiil also actively participate to the socio-economic analyses and demonstratrion trials.

Proposed tools are ideal for use in preventive and curative integrated pest management (IPM) schemes in tomato, citrus and olive orhards. They include two groups of IPM tools/strategies: (1) novel applications of BM that will result from studying tri-trophic and tripartite interactions between plants-microbes-arthropods/pathogens, as well as (2) molecular innovative tools such as peptides, metabolites and RNAs. We expect to be able to propose tools from both groups for each key pest-crop combination. BM tools will enhance biological control means in INTOMED crops while MIT will be based on molecules naturally used by the plants in their defense against their enemies. INTOMED tools are compatible with other IPM tools, such as biological pest control with the use of natural enemies (insects, parasitoids). INTOMED will demonstrate multiple solutions for integrated pest/pathogen management and is fully in line with the expected impact of the PRIMA work programme to propose novel tools, such as the development of: (1) new biocontrol agents: INTOMED will identify, develop and test the application of soil-borne beneficial microbes against arthropod pests and pathogens of economically important crops, (2) naturally-derived compounds: INTOMED will identify, develop and validate plant genes, metabolites and peptides that the plants recruit to defend themselves against their enemies (making use of direct and/or indirect defenses). We aim to result in specific compounds that could be applied to directly combat the particular pests and pathogens under study or to increase ecosystem services provided by natural enemies, (3) new pest control tools: INTOMED will propose RNA delivery techniques to result in RNA interference against selected INTOMED pests/pathogens and crops. Overall, INTOMED tools aim to replace currently used chemicals for the control of key pests in tomato, citrus and olive trees via the exploitation of trophic interactions between plants, microbes, pests and their natural enemies and the identification of involved regulatory mechanisms. Hence, INTOMED results are also expected to indirectly help to avoid the rapid development of insecticide resistant populations of pests/pathogens Responsible and impactful research sits in the core of INTOMED that has been designed to generate knowledge, products, tools and processes (the INTOMED toolbox) to contribute to food security (Sustainable Development Goal-SDG2) in the Mediterranean region and beyond, by safeguarding crop production against pests in an environmental-friendly manner while increasing resilience of the crop systems in focus. INTOMED recruits cutting-edge science to develop top-notch approaches that will drive the innovation of sustainability. The innovation potential is high for all actors involved; farmers, biotechnology SMEs in the agro-industrial sector, policy-makers and regulators, environmentalists and scientists.