Attract-kill pattern

An attract-kill pattern is essentially a biological interaction between plant roots and pathogens where plants entice pathogens towards their roots, to ultimately neutralize them. This has been seen to have an important role in the suppression of diseases such as Phytophthora in intercropping systems.

An example of this process can be seen in recent research from Key Laboratory of Agro-Biodiversity and Pest Management of Education Ministry of China where they indicated that maize roots attracted the zoospores of Phytophthora capsici and inhibited their motility while also causing cystospores lysis. The phenomenon has been found in various interactions between roots of non-host plant and Phytophthora.

Mechanism

The attract- kill pattern entails plants having to rely on chemical signals or pheromone’s to lure pathogens towards their roots. Following the arrival of a given pathogen plants either immobilize or lyse the incoming pathogen to prevent their ability to infect a given host plant. Maize roots for example attract zoospores of Phytophthora capsici and inhibited their motility to prevent the infection of host plant species

Pest Management

Reducing the amount of pesticides used in the enviornment is the major motivation for uncovering the sucessfulness of methods such as attract-kill. The attract-kill method is used in pest management and eradication of invasive species. This method combines sex pheromone and a killing agent such as a pathogen or insecticide to lure large numbers of pests to a specific area to ultimately eradicate them. Atrracts used to lure and then kill pests are commonly either crude baits or synthetic semiochemicals. This method is highly effective in controlling small, low-density, isolated populations. Thus, it is compelling for long-term pest management.

References

• Li C, He X, Zhu S, et al. Crop diversity for yield increase[J]. PLoS ONE, 2009, 4(11):e8049.
• Li X, Wang X, Dai C, et al. Effects of intercropping with Atractylodes lancea and application of bio-organic fertiliser on soil invertebrates, disease control and peanut productivity in continuous peanut cropping field in subtropical China[J]. Agroforestry systems, 2014, 88(1): 41-52.
• Yang M, Zhang Y, Qi L, et al. Plant-plant-microbe mechanisms involved in soil-borne disease suppression on a maize and pepper intercropping system[J]. PLoS ONE, 2014,9(12): e115052.
• Ding X, Yang M, Huang H, et al. Priming maize resistance by its neighbors: activating 1,4-benzoxazine-3-ones synthesis and defense gene expression to alleviate leaf disease[J]. Frontiers in Plant Science, 2015, 6.
• El-Sayed, A. M., D. M. Suckling, J. A. Byers, E. B. Jang, and C. H. Wearing. 2009. “Potential of ‘Lure and Kill’ in Long-Term Pest Management and Eradication of Invasive Species.” Journal of Economic Entomology 102 (3): 815–35. doi:10.1603/029.102.0301.
• Gregg, Peter C.; Del Socorro, Alice P.; Landolt, Peter J. (2018-01-07). "Advances in Attract-and-Kill for Agricultural Pests: Beyond Pheromones". Annual Review of Entomology. 63: 453–470. doi:10.1146/annurev-ento-031616-035040. ISSN 1545-4487. PMID 29058978.
• Manuel Campos, Thomas W. Phillips, Attract-and-Kill and Other Pheromone-Based Methods to Suppress Populations of the Indianmeal Moth (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae), Journal of Economic Entomology, Volume 107, Issue 1, 1 February 2014, Pages 473–480, https://doi.org/10.1603/EC13451