Felipe Borrero-Echeverry

Agrosavia · Department of Entomology

Entomopathogenic fungi are key components of biological pest control programs. Among these, Metarhizium anisopliae is one of the best-studied and has been demonstrated to be particularly effective against coleopterans. The native M. anisopliae CPMa1502, previously selected for its insecticidal activity against Demotispa neivai (oil palm fruit scrap...

Purpose This study aims to identify the most relevant causal factors and the feedback loops of the dynamics between Tuta absoluta incidence in tomato crops and farmers' reactions to the problem. The authors seek to develop a conceptual model based on farmers' know-how to address crop damage by T. absoluta at a local and regional levels in order to...

Plant‐virus interactions are affected by environmental conditions that determine plant vulnerability to pathogens, and the population dynamics of insect vectors. We hypothesize that drought enhances horizontal transmission by dampening the basal immunity of plants, which triggers symptom expression and vector manipulation. The Potato yellow vein vi...

Specific mate communication and recognition underlies reproduction and hence speciation. Our study provides new insights in Drosophila melanogaster premating olfactory communication. Mate communication evolves during adaptation to ecological niches and makes use of social signals and habitat cues. Female-produced, species-specific volatile pheromon...

Decision-making for pest management in agriculture can be assisted by sampling plans that guide users in determining the need for an intervention. The tomato leafminer, Tuta absoluta, is easily recognizable by most tomato growers and several sampling plans have been developed. Yet, the adoption of decision-making systems for this pest is still inci...

Specific mate communication and recognition underlies reproduction and hence speciation. Mate communication evolves during adaptation to ecological niches and makes use of social signals and habitat cues. Our study provides new insights in Drosophila melanogaster premating olfactory communication, showing that female pheromone Z 4-11Al and male phe...

The greenhouse whitefly (GWF), Trialeurodes vaporariorum (Westwood) (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae) is rarely associated with potato plants yet is the only known vector of the Potato yellow vein virus (PYVV). A host shift related with vector’s cognition often requires neural alterations by the virus. However, PYVV, being semi-persistent, is not supposed t...

The search for mates and food is mediated by volatile chemicals. Insects sense food odorants and sex pheromones through odorant receptors (ORs) and pheromone receptors (PRs), which are expressed in olfactory sensory neurons. Molecular phylogenetics of ORs, informed by behavioral and functional data, generates sound hypotheses for the identification...

Decision-making for pest management in agriculture is often assisted by sampling plans that guide users in determining the need for an intervention. Even though Tuta absoluta is easily recognizable by most tomato growers and that several sampling plans have been developed, adoption of decision-making systems for this pest is still incipient. Two po...

Yeasts interface insect herbivores with their food plants. Communication depends on volatile metabolites, and decoding this chemical dialogue is key to understanding the ecology of insect-yeast interactions. This study explores the volatomes of eight yeast species which have been isolated from foliage, from flowers or fruit, and from plant-feeding...

Yeasts form mutualistic interactions with insects. Hallmarks of this interaction include provision of essential nutrients, while insects facilitate yeast dispersal and growth on plant substrates. A phylogenetically ancient, chemical dialogue coordinates this interaction, where the vocabulary, the volatile chemicals that mediate the insect response,...

The Economic Injury Level (EIL) for pest insects is conventionally expressed in terms of the number of insects, because the level of pest injury to plants is usually difficult to quantify. However, when insect injury is mainly caused indirectly by transmission of plant pathogens, the number of insects may not be an ideal measure to calculate the EI...

In the 1970s entomologists and agricultural researchers realized that manipulating the communication channels that insects use could be used to control pest insects. Pheromones, the chemical signals that insects use in mate-finding, were quickly identified as potential candidates in this context. Since then the pheromones of over 3000 insect specie...

Single host plant volatiles Main pheromone component (MPC) + single host plant volatiles 4 component pheromone (4CP) + single host plant volatiles Main pheromone component (MPC) + plant blends 4 component pheromone (4CP) + plant blends S. littoralis females S. litura females

El objetivo final de un producto de biocontrol es su comercialización y uso por parte de los agricultores. El desarrollo y la puesta en el mercado de un nuevo producto es un proceso complejo que debe ser manejado de forma estructurada; en este proceso, los desarrolladores de bioplaguicidas deben integrar toda la cadena, desde la investigación básic...

Specific mate recognition relies on the chemical senses in most animals, and especially in nocturnal insects. Two signal types mediate premating olfactory communication in terrestrial habitats: sex pheromones, which blend into an atmosphere of plant odorants. We show that host plant volatiles affect the perception of sex pheromone in males of the A...

(Z)-4-undecenal (Z4-11Al) is the volatile pheromone produced by females of the vinegar fly Drosophila melanogaster. Female flies emit Z4-11Al for species-specific communication and mate-finding. A sensory panel finds that synthetic Z4-11Al has a characteristic flavour, which can be perceived even at the small amounts produced by a single female fly...

Specific mate recognition strongly relies on the chemical senses in many animals, and especially in nocturnal insects. Two signal types lend to premating olfactory communication in terrestrial habitats: sex signals blend into an atmosphere of habitat odorants, where plant volatiles prevail. We show for the first time that males of the African cotto...

( Z )-4-undecenal ( Z 4-11Al) is the volatile pheromone produced by females of the vinegar fly Drosophila melanogaster . Female flies emit Z 4-11Al for species-specific communication and mate-finding. A sensory panel finds that synthetic Z 4-11Al has a characteristic flavour, which we perceive even at the small amounts produced by one female fly. S...

Background Mate finding and recognition in animals evolves during niche adaptation and involves social signals and habitat cues. Drosophila melanogaster and related species are known to be attracted to fermenting fruit for feeding and egg-laying, which poses the question of whether species-specific fly odours contribute to long-range premating comm...

Mate recognition in animals evolves during niche adaptation and involves habitat and social olfactory signals. Drosophila melanogaster is attracted to fermenting fruit for feeding and egg-laying. We show that, in addition, female flies release a pheromone ( Z )-4-undecenal ( Z 4-11Al), that elicits flight attraction in both sexes. The biosynthetic...

Background Plants under herbivore attack release volatiles that attract natural enemies, and herbivores in turn avoid such plants. Whilst herbivore-induced plant volatile blends appeared to reduce the attractiveness of host plants to herbivores, the volatiles that are key in this process and particularly the way in which deterrence is coded in the...

In Drosophila melanogaster, gender-specific behavioural responses to the male-produced sex pheromone cis-vaccenyl acetate (cVA) rely on sexually dimorphic, third-order neural circuits. We show that nutritional state in female flies modulates cVA perception in first-order olfactory neurons. Starvation increases, and feeding reduces attraction to foo...

The insect olfactory system discriminates odor signals of different biological relevance, which drive innate behavior. Identification of stimuli that trigger upwind flight attraction towards host plants is a current challenge, and is essential in developing new, sustainable plant protection methods, and for furthering our understanding of plant-ins...

Tecia solanivora es una importante plaga del cultivo de papa que causa pérdidas hasta del 50% tanto en condiciones de campo como en almacenamiento de semilla. En la actualidad el uso de la técnica de la interrupción de la cópula (IC) se proyecta como una estrategia novedosa y limpia para el manejo de esta plaga. El grupo de Ecología Química de Corp...