Dataset Information

Temperature Dependent Growth and Mortality of Agrotis segetum.

ABSTRACT: From 1905 to present, cutworm outbreaks have caused substantial yield losses in North Western (NW) Europe. Early authors pointed to dry summers as the trigger; around 1980, the explanation was improved via modelling of historical data. The number of precipitation days and the July temperature proved to be important, and in experiments, moist soil caused considerable mortality. This information was used in preliminary forecasting with pheromone trap catches as biofix for estimations of occurrence and survival. As more precise information on temperature effects on growth and survival was needed, we performed experiments on growth and mortality effects on egg, all larval instars and pupae. We found clear positive relations between temperatures below 35 °C and development rates of eggs, all larval instars and pupae. Mortality was also affected, and low temperature caused pronounced mortality of young larvae. The severe mortality under cold, moist conditions versus high survival under warm, dry conditions may explain both the lack of relation between captures and injuries and the pronounced fluctuations of cutworm attacks in NW Europe reported from 1905 to present. These variations are likely to increase with the climate change and suggest a reanalysis of data on trap capture and injuries to improve decision support and sustainability in Integrated Pest Management.

SUBMITTER: Esbjerg P

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6359476 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Temperature Dependent Growth and Mortality of <i>Agrotis segetum</i>.

Esbjerg Peter P Sigsgaard Lene L

Insects 20190106 1

From 1905 to present, cutworm outbreaks have caused substantial yield losses in North Western (NW) Europe. Early authors pointed to dry summers as the trigger; around 1980, the explanation was improved via modelling of historical data. The number of precipitation days and the July temperature proved to be important, and in experiments, moist soil caused considerable mortality. This information was used in preliminary forecasting with pheromone trap catches as biofix for estimations of occurrence ...[more]

PMID: 30621348

Similar Datasets

Project description:BackgroundMoths rely heavily on pheromone communication for mate finding. The pheromone components of most moths are modified from the products of normal fatty acid metabolism by a set of tissue-specific enzymes. The turnip moth, Agrotis segetum uses a series of homologous fatty-alcohol acetate esters ((Z)-5-decenyl, (Z)-7-dodecenyl, and (Z)-9 tetradecenyl acetate) as its sex pheromone components. The ratio of the components differs between populations, making this species an interesting subject for studies of the enzymes involved in the biosynthetic pathway and their influence on sex pheromone variation.ResultsIllumina sequencing and comparative analysis of the transcriptomes of the pheromone gland and abdominal epidermal tissue, enabled us to identify genes coding for putative key enzymes involved in the pheromone biosynthetic pathway, such as fatty acid synthase, β-oxidation enzymes, fatty-acyl desaturases (FAD), fatty-acyl reductases (FAR), and acetyltransferases. We functionally assayed the previously identified ∆11-desaturase [GenBank: ES583599, JX679209] and FAR [GenBank: JX679210] and candidate acetyltransferases (34 genes) by heterologous expression in yeast. The functional assay confirmed that the ∆11-desaturase interacts with palmitate and produces (Z)-11-hexadecenoate, which is the common unsaturated precursor of three homologous pheromone component acetates produced by subsequent chain-shortening, reduction and acetylation. Much lower, but still visible, activity on 14C and 12C saturated acids may account for minor pheromone compounds previously observed in the pheromone gland. The FAR characterized can operate on various unsaturated fatty acids that are the immediate acyl precursors of the different A. segetum pheromone components. None of the putative acetyltransferases that we expressed heterologously did acetylate any of the fatty alcohols tested as substrates.ConclusionsThe massive sequencing technology generates enormous amounts of candidate genes potentially involved in pheromone biosynthesis but testing their function by heterologous expression or gene silencing is a bottleneck. We confirmed the function of a previously identified desaturase gene and a fatty-acyl reductase gene by heterologous expression, but the acetyltransferase postulated to be involved in pheromone biosynthesis remains illusive, in spite of 34 candidates being assayed. We also generated lists of gene candidates that may be useful for characterizing the acetyl-CoA carboxylase, fatty acid synthetase and β-oxidation enzymes.

Dataset Information

Temperature Dependent Growth and Mortality of Agrotis segetum.

Publications

Temperature Dependent Growth and Mortality of <i>Agrotis segetum</i>.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets