After cutting the double-edged sword: IPM without type VI trichomes in tomato

Abstract: Tomato glandular trichomes both help and hinder defences against arthropod
herbivores. They are an important first line of defence against a wide range of phytophagous
arthropod pest species. However, predatory arthropods are often hindered by these glandular
trichomes. The limited number of biological control agents that can be used in tomato makes
its biological control system inflexible and, as a result, insufficient upon the emergence of pests that are well-adapted to the trichome-rich environment, such as Aculops lycopersici. This raises the question: what happens when the trichomes are taken out of the system? This project uses a tomato mutant that does not develop type VI trichomes with the aim to understand the implications of removing type VI trichomes for multitrophic interactions in the tomato ecosystem as a whole, and thus to explore the potential role of this mutant in integrated pest management.