New insights are provided into the physiological mechanisms of host adaptation in spider mites and the carboxylesterase gene TtCarE-4 is identified as a potential RNAi target for sustainable pest management.
Abstract
Simple Summary Spider mites are highly polyphagous pests that frequently move between herbaceous and woody host plants in agricultural systems. Such host shifts require mites to adjust their detoxification systems to cope with different plant defense chemicals. In this study, we found that the woody host jujube specifically induced carboxylesterase activity and strongly increased the expression of the carboxylesterase gene TtCarE-4 in Tetranychus truncatus. Silencing TtCarE-4 by RNA interference significantly increased mite mortality and reduced egg production, indicating that this gene plays an important role in adaptation to woody hosts. These findings improve our understanding of host adaptation in spider mites and identify TtCarE-4 as a promising target for RNAi-based sustainable pest management.
Simple Summary The oriental fruit fly is a serious quarantine pest of fruits and vegetables, and insecticides remain important for its management. Broflanilide is a relatively new insecticide, but little is known about how this pest responds to this compound. We compared gene expression in the midgut and fat body of fl...
Bo Liu, Si-Yi Chen, Zhi-Hong Li et al.· Insects· 0 citations
Findings indicate that extreme heat appears to exceed the insect’s normal protective capacity, triggering alternative defense responses that may influence its adaptation under future climate warming scenarios.
Ji-Li Wei, Feng-Ying Wang, Yong-Lin Ma et al.· Insects· 0 citations
Simple Summary Endo-β-1,4-mannanases (MANs) are cell wall-remodeling enzymes that regulate mannan polysaccharide turnover and plant stress adaptation. The TaMAN gene family in bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) has not yet been characterized. Here, we identified 24 TaMAN genes genome-wide and analyzed their evolutionar...
Yan-Zhen Wang, Yan-Qiang Wang, Jia-Lu Li et al.· Biology· 0 citations
Simple Summary The fall armyworm feeds on many crops and encounters diverse plant defensive chemicals. We examined whether repeated exposure to α-solanine, a defensive compound associated with potato, changes how this insect performs and responds physiologically. A line maintained for 12 generations on an α-solanine-co...
Bemisia tabaci is a destructive agricultural pest with a remarkable capacity to exploit diverse host plants. Horizontally transferred genes (HTGs) have recently been implicated in this adaptive success, yet the functions of most HTGs in the whitefly remain unclear. Feeding behavior is crucial for nutrient acquisition a...
Fang-Fang Qi, Shao-Long Qiu, Zi-Tong Sang et al.· Journal of Agricultural and...· 0 citations
A new machine-learning framework aims to improve the success rate of computational protein design while moving away from results that reproduce sequences found in nature.
