blog

Members of the whitefly species are pests that threaten food security. Identifying them is tricky, as there are 34 species globally and various species are morphologically identical, so researchers must rely on a reference dataset. Laura Boykin, Senior Research Fellow at the University of Western Australia and team, have published research on whiteflies in F1000Research and Gates Open Research. Here, she and Anders Savill explain why the dataset had to be updated and how this can help with control strategies.

The whitefly Bemisia tabaci is a species complex containing at least 34 species that all look identical. The only way to tell them apart currently is to use data from the partial mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase subunit I (mtCOI) gene sequence, which is found in our Data Note.

They all look identical and the only way to tell them apart currently is to use mtCOI data

The species complex colonises more than 600 different species of plants and causes significant damage through transmitting hundreds of plant viruses, feeding on plant phloem sap, and promoting the growth of damaging fungi on honeydew excretions. Billions of US dollars are lost each year due to the damage caused by these tiny insects!

Species ID tool

One of the first large datasets of Bemisia tabaci was released on 31 December 2012, since then only minor updates and changes have been made to the dataset. The curation of the 2012 dataset and many datasets like it are time intensive to compile and check.

Our dataset allows people to easily identify new genetic signatures

In 2016, the Whiteflybase 2.0 project provided our team with an integrated tool to be able to rapidly ingest large GenBank files, complete preliminary classifications, and provide us with rough alignments for further verification using Bayesian methods.

This end to end tool has allowed us to automate many of the time intensive tasks, which has in turn reduced the time it takes to compile a dataset from months to weeks. The dataset now holds over 1000 unique sequences representing over 5000 individual Genbank sequences and will provide scientists with the most comprehensive whitefly dataset to date.

Tackling future outbreaks

Solutions for farmers must be customised to the right whitefly enemy. The idea that there was only one species of whitefly worldwide was held for a long time but now it is widely accepted that they are different species.

Solutions for farmers must be customised to the right whitefly enemy

One of the difficult things about identifying new species is that many scientists are under pressure to not change their names, because then all the names within the governmental regulations have to be changed. There’s also pressure from chemical companies, who market their products for specific species. If we say there are 34 species, and not one, they have to test their products on all 34.

Our dataset allows people to easily identify new genetic signatures that could potentially be new species. Farmers need us to identify the whitefly species correctly, so the most suitable solution can be deployed to their farms.