Dataset Information

Assemblage of the Egg Parasitoids of the Invasive Stink Bug Halyomorpha halys: Insights on Plant Host Associations.

ABSTRACT: Halyomorpha halys (Stål) (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae) is an invasive alien species and a key agricultural pest. Its native parasitoids (Trissolcus japonicus Ashmead and Tr. mitsukurii Ashmead) have been registered in several countries where H. halys brought dramatic economic losses and where biological control is considered to be the most effective long-term solution. By searching for stink bug egg masses and exposing sentinel egg masses, we monitored the distribution of native and exotic egg parasitoids in Trentino-Alto Adige (Italy), an area where both the host and parasitoids are in expansion. We recorded ten pentatomids, seven parasitoid species, with the first report of Tr. japonicus in this area and a hyperparasitoid. In the assemblage, Anastatus bifasciatus (Geoffroy) and Tr. mitsukurii were the dominant parasitoids, with a different distribution in terms of context and host plants. Sycamore was the host plant where the highest number of naturally laid parasitized egg masses (26%) were recorded. Trissolcus mitsukurii showed the highest parasitism rate, and was often found in apple orchards. The emergence of exotic parasitoids showed a temporal delay compared to native ones. Sequence analysis of 823 bp of the CO1 mitochondrial gene revealed that the recovered Tr. japonicus and Tr. mitsukurii harbored one single haplotype each. These haplotypes were previously found in 2018 in Northern Italy. While sentinel egg masses proved to be very effective in tracking the arrival of exotic Trissolcus species, the collection of stink bug egg masses provided fundamental data on the plant host species. The results lend strong support to the adaptation of exotic Trissolcus species to the environmental conditions of the range of introduction, providing new information on plant host-associations, fundamental for the development of biological control programs.

SUBMITTER: Zapponi L

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7563961 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Assemblage of the Egg Parasitoids of the Invasive Stink Bug Halyomorpha halys: Insights on Plant Host Associations.

Zapponi Livia L Bon Marie Claude MC Fouani Jalal Melhem JM Anfora Gianfranco G Schmidt Silvia S Falagiarda Martina M

Insects 20200901 9

Halyomorpha halys (Stål) (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae) is an invasive alien species and a key agricultural pest. Its native parasitoids (Trissolcus japonicus Ashmead and Tr. mitsukurii Ashmead) have been registered in several countries where H. halys brought dramatic economic losses and where biological control is considered to be the most effective long-term solution. By searching for stink bug egg masses and exposing sentinel egg masses, we monitored the distribution of ...[more]

PMID: 32882915

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Project description:Halyomorpha halys (Stål) (Heteroptera: Pentatomidae), the brown marmorated stink bug, is an invasive agricultural and nuisance pest rapidly expanding its incidence in North America. This voracious pest poses a significant threat to rural and urban agriculture, especially to specialty crops such as apples, grapes and ornamentals, as well as staple crops including soybean and corn. The object of this study was to generate transcript sequence resources for H. halys. RNA-seq libraries derived from distinct developmental stages and sexes were sequenced and assembled into 248,569 putatively unique transcripts (PUTs). PUTs were segmented into three disjoint tiers of varying reliability, with 4,794 classified as gold tier (highest quality), 16,878 as silver, and 14,357 as bronze. The gold-tier PUTs associated with 2,580 distinct non-redundant protein sequences from the NCBI NR database--1,785 of these (69%) mapped to annotated UniProtKB database proteins, from which 1,273 unique Pfam families and 459 unique Molecular Function GO terms were encountered. Of the silver tier's 6,527 PUTs associated with unique proteins, 4,193 mapped to UniProtKB (64%), from which 1,941 and 640 unique Pfam and Molecular Function GO terms were extracted. H. halys PUTs related to important life processes like immunity, endocrinology, reproduction, development, behavior, neurotransmission, neurotoxicity, olfaction, and small RNA pathways were validated through quantitative Real-Time PCR (qRT-PCR) for differential expression during distinct life stages (eggs, 2nd instar nymphs, 4th instar nymphs, female adults, male adults). PUTs similar to hypothetical proteins identified in symbiont microbes, including Pantoea and Nosema species, were more abundantly expressed in adults versus nymphs. These comprehensive H. halys transcriptomic resources can be utilized to aid development of novel control methodologies to disrupt life processes; to conduct reverse genetic screens to determine host gene function; and to design environmentally unobtrusive means to control host populations or target specific H. halys life stages, such as molecular biopesticides.

Project description:Halyomorpha halys (Stål) (Insecta:Hemiptera;Pentatomidae), commonly known as the Brown Marmorated Stink Bug (BMSB), is an invasive pest of the mid-Atlantic region of the United States, causing economically important damage to a wide range of crops. Native to Asia, BMSB was first observed in Allentown, PA, USA, in 1996, and this pest is now well-established throughout the US mid-Atlantic region and beyond. In addition to the serious threat BMSB poses to agriculture, BMSB has become a nuisance to homeowners, invading home gardens and congregating in large numbers in human-made structures, including homes, to overwinter. Despite its significance as an agricultural pest with limited control options, only 100 bp of BMSB sequence data was available in public databases when this project began.Transcriptome sequencing was undertaken to provide a molecular resource to the research community to inform the development of pest control strategies and to provide molecular data for population genetics studies of BMSB. Using normalized, strand-specific libraries, we sequenced pools of all BMSB life stages on the Illumina HiSeq. Trinity was used to assemble 200,000 putative transcripts in >100,000 components. A novel bioinformatic method that analyzed the strand-specificity of the data reduced this to 53,071 putative transcripts from 18,573 components. By integrating multiple other data types, we narrowed this further to 13,211 representative transcripts.Bacterial endosymbiont genes were identified in this dataset, some of which have a copy number consistent with being lateral gene transfers between endosymbiont genomes and Hemiptera, including ankyrin-repeat related proteins, lysozyme, and mannanase. Such genes and endosymbionts may provide novel targets for BMSB-specific biocontrol. This study demonstrates the utility of strand-specific sequencing in generating shotgun transcriptomes and that rapid sequencing shotgun transcriptomes is possible without the need for extensive inbreeding to generate homozygous lines. Such sequencing can provide a rapid response to pest invasions similar to that already described for disease epidemiology.

Dataset Information

Assemblage of the Egg Parasitoids of the Invasive Stink Bug Halyomorpha halys: Insights on Plant Host Associations.

Publications

Assemblage of the Egg Parasitoids of the Invasive Stink Bug <i>Halyomorpha halys</i>: Insights on Plant Host Associations.

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