HOST TOLERANCE: UNDERSTANDING HOW PLANT HOSTS MITIGATE VIRUS INFECTIONS AND CONSEQUENCES FOR PLANT-INSECT INTERACTIONS

The long-term goals of this project are to (1) understand the genetic basis of host tolerance to plant virus infection and (2) understand how virus tolerance in plants impacts plant and pollinator health, providing insight into the feasibility of virus tolerance as a disease management strategy to increase crop production.To advance these goals, the specific objectives are:(1) Perform comparative transciptomic studies using Cucurbita spp. with differing levels of tolerance to Zucchini yellow mosaic virus to identify genes and/or gene networks important for host tolerance.(2) a: Measure metrics of plant fitness in virus-infected Cucurbita spp. with differing levels of virus tolerance.(2) b: Assess pollinator prefernce for virus-infected and uninfected plants, using Cucurbita spp. with differing levels of virus tolerance.(2) c: Quantify nutritional characteristics of virus-infected plants to assess consequences of virus infection for pollinator health and if consequences are mediated in more tolerant plant hosts.