Reducing aphids on barley crops by exploiting beneficial species interactions with bacteria and natural enemies

Insect pests such as aphids play a central role in the reduction of agricultural yield and quality by extracting plant nutrients and vectoring plant pathogens. Insecticides can be harmful to the environment and pest populations are evolving resistance to their effects. This has led to the idea of soil microbiome manipulation as a promising pest control strategy. We inoculate barley with root bacteria to reduce aphids by inducing plant defences and altering plant volatiles to increase recruitment of natural enemies in the field for further biocontrol. We present results from an outdoor pot experiment and large-scale field trial where multiple rhizobacteria were inoculated and we followed aphid and natural enemy colonisation on different barley varieties across the growing season. In addition, we are currently identifying microbe-induced plant volatiles that may impact parasitoid wasp behaviour with the aim to provide practical benefits for agriculture and food security.