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POSTERS: Pathogen-vector/insect interactions

AgriVectors: a systems biology portal for plant pathosystems and arthropod vectors of plant diseases
Surya Saha - Boyce Thompson Institute. Wayne Hunter- USDA ARS, AgriVectors Consortium- Boyce Thompson Institute, Lukas Mueller- Boyce Thompson Institute

Arthropod vectors of pathogens cause enormous economic losses and are a fundamental challenge for sustainable increases in food production. To more effectively fight plant diseases, data pertaining to a disease system needs to be consolidated, made searchable and amenable to data mining. The proposed AgriVectors platform is an open access and comprehensive resource for growers, researchers and industry working on plant pathogens and pathosystems spread by arthropod vectors. The portal connects established public repositories with pathosystem-specific data repositories. The AgriVectors system will provide tools to enable technologies such as RNAi, CRISPR, screening bioassays, etc. to leverage current and emerging knowledge across disciplines. The portal will be based on the Citrusgreening.org (https://citrusgreening.org/) community resource for the Huanglongbing pathosystem that was developed as a model for systems biology of tritrophic disease complexes. It includes a biochemical pathway database for each organism in this disease complex, and an expression atlas for the psyllid vector and citrus host. The AgriVectors portal will extend this model beyond gene-centric omics data to the broader Pathosystem-wide information, with integrated pest management, behavioral, plant health, soil health and climate data to incorporate rapid phenotyping information from research trials, building a foundation for more effectively identifying solutions to combat plant diseases.