Characterization and transcriptomic analysis of a native fungal pathogen against the rice pest Nilaparvata lugens

The brown planthopper (BPH), , is one of the most destructive pests of rice. Given the threats posed by insecticide resistance to its control, eco-friendly strategies based on microbial pathogens emerged as a promising biocontrol alternative. In the present study, we isolated a native fungal pathoge...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Frontiers in microbiology 2023-05, Vol.14, p.1162113-1162113
Main Authors: Wang, Zheng-Liang, Wang, Yan-Dan, Cheng, Yi-Qing, Ye, Zi-Hong, Liu, Guang-Fu, Yu, Xiao-Ping
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Aspergillus fumigatus
biocontrol
brown planthopper
fungal pathogen
Microbiology
transcriptomic sequencing
Citations: Items that this one cites
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The brown planthopper (BPH), , is one of the most destructive pests of rice. Given the threats posed by insecticide resistance to its control, eco-friendly strategies based on microbial pathogens emerged as a promising biocontrol alternative. In the present study, we isolated a native fungal pathogen against BPH from infected BPH cadavers and preliminarily identified as a strain of based on morphological and molecular methods. Laboratory bioassay revealed that this fungal strain was highly virulent to BPH both at nymphal and adult stages, with the median lethal times (LT ) of 7.5 and 5.8 days under high conidial concentration of 1 × 10 conidia mL . A genome-wide view of gene expressions in BPH against fungal attack was analyzed by transcriptomic sequencing and consequently a large number of differentially expressed genes that mainly involved in host immune defense and cell detoxification were found. RNAi-mediated knockdown of an upregulated gene encoding a serine protease ( ) could cause a significant decrease in BPH survival. Combination of dsRNA injection and fungal infection showed an additive effect on BPH mortality, which provided clues to develop new pest management strategies against BPH.
ISSN:1664-302X
1664-302X
DOI:10.3389/fmicb.2023.1162113