Biological control on tomato without type VI trichomes

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Abstract: Predatory arthropods are often hindered by glandular trichomes in crops such as
tomato. This makes the biological control system in tomato inflexible: it relies on a limited
number of biological control agents. Our project focuses on the potential for biological control in a tomato variety lacking type VI trichomes. To study whether such a tomato variety is more accessible to natural enemies, we investigated the effects of the trichomes on the establishment of generalist predator Orius laevigatus. We observed that the success of O. laevigatus is indeed related to type VI trichomes: when type VI trichomes were present, O. laevigatus was not able to establish on the tomato plants. However, in the absence of these trichomes O. laevigatus established when supplemental food was also provided. These results show that removing the glandular trichomes from tomato may lead to more opportunities for the use of a wider range of biological control agents in tomato and is worth exploring further.

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