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Insects
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Adaption of Herbivorous Insects to Plant Chemical Defense
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Adaption of Herbivorous Insects to Plant Chemical Defense

A special issue of Insects (ISSN 2075-4450). This special issue belongs to the section "Insect Pest and Vector Management".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 February 2023) | Viewed by 5885

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Seung-Joon Ahn

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, Entomology, and Plant Pathology, Mississippi State University, Starkville, MS 39762, USA
Interests: insect-plant interaction; chemical ecology; detoxification; genomics; pest management
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Insect herbivores, confronted with a variety of noxious chemicals in their food, have evolved various counter-defense mechanisms to cope with their harmful effects. The evolution of novel adaptation mechanisms to plant defensive compounds in insects has enabled them to utilize new host plants and retain their ecological position. Therefore, studies on the underlying mechanisms of insects’ adaptations to plant defense are crucial to understand how insect herbivores have diversified on plants. These mechanisms include simply avoiding continuous contact, excreting unwanted compounds rapidly, modifying them enzymatically into less or nontoxic molecules, sequestering them for further utilization, or developing target-site insensitivity. In this Special Issue, we will collect basic and applied research papers, as well as minireviews, focusing on the ways that herbivorous insects have adapted to plant defensive compounds, seeking submissions from experts working on topics related to molecular, biochemical, and physiological mechanisms of insects’ adaptations to plant chemical defenses.

Dr. Seung-Joon Ahn
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Insects is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • biochemistry
  • molecular biology
  • metabolic detoxification
  • plant defense
  • environmental stress
  • counter adaptation
  • detoxification enzymes
  • sequestration
  • excretion

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

13 pages, 1031 KiB  
Article
UHPLC-MS/MS Analysis of the Accumulation and Excretion of Steroidal Glycoalkaloids Consumed by Potato Tuber Moth (Phthorimaea operculella) Larvae under Different Feeding Treatments
by Yajin Li, Qiong Wang, Xiaoyu Xu and Huachun Guo
Insects 2023, 14(1), 26; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/insects14010026 - 26 Dec 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1355
Abstract
Food poisoning caused by potato glycoside alkaloids (SGA) remains a critical factor that affects potato production safety. The potato tuber moth (Phthorimaea operculella) is a notorious pest that displays good adaptability to SGA in potato tissues. Studies that explore the mechanisms [...] Read more.
Food poisoning caused by potato glycoside alkaloids (SGA) remains a critical factor that affects potato production safety. The potato tuber moth (Phthorimaea operculella) is a notorious pest that displays good adaptability to SGA in potato tissues. Studies that explore the mechanisms underlying SGA homeostasis in potato tuber moth larvae are urgently needed. In this study, ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography (UHPLC)-triple quadrupole mass spectrometry (MS/MS) was applied to detect the dominant SGA substances α-solanine and α-chaconine in potato leaves and PTM larval tissues. From the highest to lowest SGA concentrations, the potato cultivars studied were ranked as follows: DS47, LS6, DS23 and QS9. To exclude the influence of nutrients within different potato varieties, different SGA containing (0%, 0.1%, 0.2%, 0.3% and 0.4%) the artificial diet treatment groups were added. DS47 and 0.3% SGA-containing artificial diets presented the best conditions for PTM growth, development and reproduction compared to other potato cultivars and artificial diet controls. The potato tuber moth larva tissues were dissected and the SGA content within different tissues were detected using an UHPLC machine. The results showed that α-chaconine was dispersed in the feces, midgut, hindgut, head and cuticle, and α-solanine was distributed only in the feces and midgut. Antibiotic-treated insects exhibited higher concentrations of SGA than the normal microbiome group. Furthermore, the SGA concentrations of 100 newly-hatched PTM larvae and puparia were detected, with both of them found to contain small amounts of SGA. The results showed that ecdysis and the excretion process were effective approaches used by the potato tuber moth to equilibrate internal SGA accumulation. The microorganism-decreased SGA concentrations were excited in their gut. SGA may transfer from adults to the next generation, and SGAs in PTM are inheritable. In this study, we demonstrated that the potato tuber moth possessed an effective method to preliminarily decrease high SGA accumulation in potato. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Adaption of Herbivorous Insects to Plant Chemical Defense)
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18 pages, 26867 KiB  
Article
De Novo Transcription Responses Describe Host-Related Differentiation of Paracoccus marginatus (Hemiptera: Pseudococcidae)
by Lizhen Zheng, Jianyu Li, Mengzhu Shi, Yanting Chen, Xiaoyun He and Jianwei Fu
Insects 2022, 13(9), 850; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/insects13090850 - 19 Sep 2022
Viewed by 1683
Abstract
Paracoccus marginatus (Hemiptera: Pseudococcidae) is an invasive pest with a diverse host range, strong diffusion, and high fecundity. It has been observed that P. marginatus feeding on Carica papaya have a higher survival rate, fecundity, and longer lifespan than P. marginatus feeding on [...] Read more.
Paracoccus marginatus (Hemiptera: Pseudococcidae) is an invasive pest with a diverse host range, strong diffusion, and high fecundity. It has been observed that P. marginatus feeding on Carica papaya have a higher survival rate, fecundity, and longer lifespan than P. marginatus feeding on Solanum tuberosum, indicating their successful adaptation to C. papaya; however, the mechanisms underlying host plant adaptation remain unclear. Therefore, RNA-seq was performed to study the transcriptional responses of P. marginatus feeding on C. papaya and S. tuberosum plants. A total of 408 genes with significant differential expression were defined; most of them were downregulated in S. tuberosum, including those of digestive enzymes, detoxifying enzymes, ribosomes, and reproductive-related genes, which may result from the adaptation of the host to nutritional needs and changes in toxic chemical levels. Enrichment analysis of the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes showed that lysosome and longevity regulating pathways related to digestion, detoxification, and longevity were enriched. We suggest that C. papaya is a more suitable host than S. tuberosum, and downregulated target genes may have important effects on the adaptation of P. marginatus to host transfer. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Adaption of Herbivorous Insects to Plant Chemical Defense)
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16 pages, 4528 KiB  
Article
The Evolution of Glycoside Hydrolase Family 1 in Insects Related to Their Adaptation to Plant Utilization
by Shulin He, Bin Jiang, Amrita Chakraborty and Guozhi Yu
Insects 2022, 13(9), 786; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/insects13090786 - 30 Aug 2022
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2094
Abstract
Insects closely interact with plants with multiple genes involved in their interactions. β-glucosidase, constituted mainly by glycoside hydrolase family 1 (GH1), is a crucial enzyme in insects to digest plant cell walls and defend against natural enemies with sequestered plant metabolites. To gain [...] Read more.
Insects closely interact with plants with multiple genes involved in their interactions. β-glucosidase, constituted mainly by glycoside hydrolase family 1 (GH1), is a crucial enzyme in insects to digest plant cell walls and defend against natural enemies with sequestered plant metabolites. To gain more insights into the role of this enzyme in plant–insect interactions, we analyzed the evolutionary history of the GH1 gene family with publicly available insect genomes. We found that GH1 is widely present in insects, while the gene numbers are significantly higher in insect herbivores directly feeding on plant cell walls than in other insects. After reconciling the insect GH1 gene tree with a species tree, we found that the patterns of duplication and loss of GH1 genes differ among insect orders, which may be associated with the evolution of their ecology. Furthermore, the majority of insects’ GH1 genes were tandem-duplicated and subsequently went through neofunctionalization. This study shows the evolutionary history of an important gene family GH1 in insects and facilitates our understanding of the evolution of insect–plant interactions. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Adaption of Herbivorous Insects to Plant Chemical Defense)
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