plant insect interactions

Tuta absoluta ("leafminer"), is a major pest of tomato crops worldwide. Controlling this insect is difficult due to its efficient infestation, rapid proliferation, and resilience to changing weather conditions. Furthermore, chemical pesticides have only a short-term effect due to rapid development of T. absoluta strains. Here, we show that a variety of tomato cultivars, treated with external phenylalanine solutions exhibit high resistance to T. absoluta, under both greenhouse and open field conditions, at different locations...

Plants face trade-offs between allocating resources to growth, while also defending against herbivores or pathogens. Species differences along defense trade-off axes may promote coexistence and maintain diversity. However, few studies of plant communities have simultaneously compared defense trade-offs against an array of herbivores and pathogens for which defense investment may differ, and even fewer have been conducted in the complex natural communities in which these interactions unfold. We tested predictions about the role of defense trade-offs with competition and growth in diversity maintenance by tracking plant species abundance in a field experiment that removed individual consumer groups (mammals, arthropods, fungi) and added nutrients...

BACKGROUND: The important wood-boring pest Batocera horsfieldi has evolved a sensitive olfactory system to locate host plants. Odorant-binding proteins (OBPs) are thought to play key roles in olfactory recognition. Therefore exploring the physiological function of OBPs could facilitate a better understanding of insect chemical communications. RESULTS: In this research, 36 BhorOBPs genes were identified via transcriptome sequencing of adults' antennae from B. horsfieldi, and most BhorOBPs were predominantly expressed in chemosensory body parts...

Food security is important for the ever-growing global population. Soybean, Glycine max (L.) Merr., is cultivated worldwide providing a key source of food, protein and oil. Hence, it is imperative to maintain or to increase its yield under different conditions including challenges caused by abiotic and biotic stresses. In recent years, the soybean pod-sucking stinkbug Riptortus pedestris has emerged as an important agricultural insect pest in East, South and Southeast Asia. Here, we present a genomics resource for R...

UNLABELLED: Most arthropod-borne viruses produce intermittent epidemics in infected plants. However, the underlying mechanisms of these epidemics are unclear. Here, we demonstrated that rice stripe mosaic virus (RSMV), a viral pathogen, significantly increases the mortality of its overwintering vector, the leafhopper species Recilia dorsalis . Cold-stress assays indicated that RSMV reduces the cold tolerance of leafhoppers, a process associated with the downregulation of leafhopper cuticular protein genes...

Pathogenic microorganisms can impact the behavior and physiology of herbivores by direct or indirect means. This study demonstrated that yellow peach moth Conogethes punctiferalis larvae feeding on Penicillium -infected apples exhibited significantly longer body length and weight parameters compared to the control group. The sequencing of gut 16S rRNA showed a significant increase in the diversity and abundance of bacteria in the larvae feeding on Penicillium -infected apples. Additionally, transcriptomic sequencing of the larval gut indicated significant upregulation of genes related to digestion and cuticle formation after consuming Penicillium -infected apples...

The significance of ecological non-monotonicity (a function whose first derivative changes signs) in shaping the structure and functions of the ecosystem has recently been recognized, but such studies involving high-order interactions are rare. Here, we have proposed a three-trophic conceptual diagram on interactions among trees, rodents, and insects in mast and non-mast years and tested the hypothesis that oak (Quercus wutaishanica) masting could result in increased mutualism and less predation in an oak-weevil-rodent system in a warm temperate forest of China...

An unprecedented plant health emergency in olives has been registered over the last decade in Italy, arguably more severe than what occurred repeatedly in grapes in the US in the last 140 years. These emergencies are epidemics caused by a stealthy pathogen, the xylem-limited, insect-transmitted bacterium Xylella fastidiosa. Although these epidemics spurred research that answered many questions about the biology and management of this pathogen, many gaps in knowledge remain. For this review, we set to represent both the US and European perspectives on the most pressing challenges that need to be addressed...

BACKGROUND: Many piercing-sucking insects have developed resistance or cross resistance to many insecticides targeting insect neural nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR). Here we are aiming to present the discovery of a novel mesoionic insecticide, Fenmezoditiaz, by BASF through structure-based drug design (SBDD) approaches. It has recently been added to the Insecticide Resistance Action Committee mode of classification (IRAC 4E). It is being developed for plant protection against piercing-sucking pests, especially rice hopper complex...

BACKGROUND: Citrus huanglongbing (HLB) is a devastating disease caused by Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus (CLas) that affects the citrus industry. In nature, CLas relies primarily on Diaphorina citri Kuwayama as its vector for dissemination. After D. citri ingests CLas-infected citrus, the pathogen infiltrates the insect's body, where it thrives, reproduces, and exerts regulatory control over the growth and metabolism of D. citri. Previous studies have shown that CLas alters the composition of proteins in the saliva of D...

Monoterpenes and phenolics play distinct roles in defending white spruce trees from insect defoliators. Monoterpenes contribute to the toxicity of the foliage, deterring herbivory, whereas phenolics impede budworm growth. This study demonstrates the complex interplay between monoterpenes and phenolics and their collective influence on the defense strategy of white spruce trees against a common insect defoliator. Long-lived coniferous trees display considerable variations in their defensive chemistry. The impact of these defense phenotype variations on insect herbivores of the same species remains to be thoroughly studied, mainly due to challenges in replicating the comprehensive defense profiles of trees under controlled conditions...

Rosalia funebris (RFUNE; Cerambycidae), the banded alder borer, is a longhorn beetle whose larvae feed on the wood of various economically and ecologically significant trees in western North America. Adults are short-lived and not known to consume plant material substantially. We sequenced, assembled and annotated the RFUNE genome using HiFi and RNASeq data. We documented genome architecture and gene content, focusing on genes putatively involved in plant feeding (phytophagy). Comparisons were made to the well-studied genome of the Asian longhorned beetle (AGLAB; Anoplophora glabripennis) and other Cerambycidae...

The sugar beet root maggot (SBRM), Tetanops myopaeformis (von Röder), is a devastating insect pathogen of sugar beet (SB), Beta vulgaris , ssp vulgaris ( B. vulgaris ), an important food crop, while also being one of only two plants globally from which sugar is widely produced, and accounting for 35% of global raw sugar with an annual farm value of $3 billion in the United States alone. SBRM is the most devastating pathogen of sugar beet in North America. The limited natural resistance of B. vulgaris necessitates an understanding of the SBRM genome to facilitate generating knowledge of its basic biology, including the interaction between the pathogen and its host(s)...

Soil rhizobia promote nitrogen fixation in legume hosts, maximizing their tolerance to different biotic stressors, plant biomass, crop growth, and yield. While the presence of soil rhizobia is considered beneficial for plants, few studies have assessed whether variation in rhizobia abundance affects the tolerance of legumes to stressors. To address this, we assessed the effects of variable soil rhizobia inoculum concentrations on interactions between a legume host ( Pisum sativum ), a vector insect ( Acyrthosiphon pisum ), and a virus ( Pea enation mosaic virus , PEMV)...

Plant transporters regulating the distribution of secondary metabolites play critical roles in defending against pathogens, insects, and interacting with beneficial microbes. The phosphorylation of these transporters can alter their activity, stability, and intracellular protein trafficking. However, the regulatory mechanism underlying this modification remains elusive. In this study, we discovered two Orthologs of mammalian PKA, PKG, and PKC (AGC) kinases, Oxidative signal-inducible 1 (OXI1) and its closest homologue, AGC subclass 2 member 2 (AGC2-2; 75% amino acid sequence identity with OXI1), associated with the extracellular secretion of camalexin and Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) resistance to Pseudomonas syringae and Botrytis cinerea...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Pollinators provide critical ecosystem services, maintaining biodiversity and benefiting global food production. However, plants, pollinators, and their mutualistic interactions may be affected by drought, which has increased in severity and frequency under climate change. Using two annual, insect-pollinated wildflowers (Phacelia campanularia and Nemophila menziesii), we asked how drought impacts floral traits and foraging preferences of a solitary bee (Osmia lignaria) and explore potential implications for plant reproduction...

(1) Background: Understanding the relationship between community assembly and species coexistence is key to understanding ecosystem diversity. Despite the importance of wood-boring longhorn beetles (Cerambycidae) in forests, factors affecting their population dynamics, species richness, and ecological interactions remain underexplored. (2) Methods: We surveyed cerambycid beetles and plants within five plots each across three transects in tropical rainforests and temperate forests of Yunnan, China, known for its rich biodiversity and varied elevation gradients...

Effective in a variety of insect orders, including dipteran, lepidopteran, and hemipteran, Wolbachia -based control tactics are investigated, noting the importance of sterile and incompatible insect techniques. Encouraging approaches for controlling Aedes mosquitoes are necessary, as demonstrated by the evaluation of a new SIT/IIT combination and the incorporation of SIT into Drosophila suzukii management. For example, Wolbachia may protect plants from rice pests, demonstrating its potential for agricultural biological vector management...

In plant-microbe-insect systems, plant-mediated responses involve the regulation and interactions of plant defense signaling pathways of phytohormones jasmonic acid (JA), ethylene (ET), and salicylic acid (SA). Phytoplasma subgroup 16SrI is the causal agent of Aster Yellows (AY) disease and is primarily transmitted by populations of aster leafhoppers (Macrosteles quadrilineatus Forbes). Aster Yellows infection in plants is associated with the downregulation of the JA pathway and increased leafhopper oviposition...

Biological invasions increase with the intensity of globalization, human activities, and climate change. Insects represent a high potential of invasive species due to their adaptability to new environment. We analysed here the potential of an Asian phytophagous bug, Corythauma ayyari (Heteroptera, Tingidae) to become widespread, recently recorded in Europe, and that depends on Jasminum spp., an ornamental plant widespread in Europe. We modelled its current distribution, projected it into the future and tested its niche overlap between native and invaded areas...