Descrizione del progetto
Come rendere le colture a prova di insetti
Gli insetti erbivori rappresentano una minaccia permanente per l’agricoltura e la sicurezza alimentare globale. Un modo innovativo per affrontare questo problema può essere quello di comprendere il ruolo che le restrizioni biomeccaniche svolgono nelle prestazioni degli insetti erbivori prolifici. Il progetto MechAnt, finanziato dall’UE, utilizzerà le formiche tagliafoglie come sistema modello per ricavare conoscenze fondamentali sul ruolo della meccanica nell’alimentazione delle piante da parte degli insetti. Il progetto valuterà l’ipotesi secondo la quale l’organizzazione sociale delle colonie di tagliafoglie si basi su standard ergonomici, a loro volta controllati dalle proprietà delle foglie. Si ricorrerà a una vasta gamma di campi scientifici per identificare e spiegare i meccanismi e le restrizioni che determinano le prestazioni di taglio degli insetti.
Obiettivo
Insect herbivores are a dominant element in terrestrial ecosystems, and pose a continuing threat to global food security. However, little is known about a key determinant of insect herbivore success: the mechanics of plant-feeding. MechAnt proposes to transform our understanding of insect-plant relations by providing a rigorous biomechanical investigation into how insects cut leaves, using the major ecosystem engineers and principal insect pest of the New World, the leaf-cutter ants, as a model system. Specifically, MechAnt will combine the traditionally separate fields of behavioural ecology, mechanical engineering, materials science, computer vision and machine learning to investigate: (1) the mechanical and energetic constraints determining the cutting ability, and ontogeny of task choice of differently-sized workers, and hence the adaptive value of physical castes in eusocial insects; (2) the relationship between plant material properties, ease of cutting, and mandibular wear, which will reveal the key mechanical determinants of plant-herbivore species interactions; (3) the division of labour, ontogeny and demography of leaf-cutter colonies foraging on leaves of different “toughness”, testing the hypothesis that leaf-cutter colonies are organised according to ergonomic criteria. By integrating insights ranging from nano-scale mechanics up to whole-colony ecology, MechAnt will quantitatively link the mechanical properties of plants with the performance of individual foragers, the organisation of foraging parties, and the demography and social organisation of leaf-cutter ant colonies. The resulting understanding of the biomechanical innovations underpinning the success of the leaf-cutter ants will yield insights into the behavioural ecology of advanced plant-feeders, highlight the role of biomechanical constraints in the behaviour and evolution of herbivorous insects, and pave the way for the development of novel crop protection strategies.
Campo scientifico
- social sciencessociologydemography
- natural sciencescomputer and information sciencesartificial intelligencecomputer vision
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesecologyecosystems
- natural sciencesbiological scienceszoologyentomology
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesbiological behavioural sciencesbehavioural ecology
Parole chiave
Programma(i)
Argomento(i)
Meccanismo di finanziamento
ERC-STG - Starting GrantIstituzione ospitante
SW7 2AZ LONDON
Regno Unito