Publications by authors named "Wei-Nan Kang"

Article Synopsis
  • The Colorado potato beetle, a major pest, uses bright colors to signal its toxicity to predators, which comes from toxic compounds that are still being studied.
  • Research reveals that the beetle’s toxic hydrogen cyanide (HCN) is produced from mandelonitrile and other compounds by a gut bacterium called Proteus vulgaris Ld01, which also synthesizes these compounds through genes.
  • Eliminating this bacterium from the beetle reduces HCN emission and makes them more appealing to predators, as shown in experiments where chickens preferred eating bacteria-deprived larvae over others, demonstrating the importance of gut bacteria in the beetle's defense strategy.
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Vacuolar ATPase (vATPase) is an important proton pump in insect tissues including gut and Malpighian tubule. Subunit F, one of the 16 subunits of the vATPase holoenzyme, is not well characterized. Here, we found that two HvvATPaseF isoforms were highly expressed in the hindgut and Malpighian tubules (MT) in the 28-spotted lady-beetle Henosepilachna vigintioctopunctata, an agricultural pest that feeds on Solanaceae and Cucurbitaceae.

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The vATPase holoenzyme consists of two functional subcomplexes, the cytoplasmic (peripheral) V and the membrane-embedded V. Both V and V sectors contain eight subunits, with stoichiometry of ABCDEFGH in V and acc'c"def(Voa1p) in V respectively. However, the function of G subunit has not been characterized in any non-Drosophilid insect species.

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To avoid potential harm during pupation, the Colorado potato beetle lives in two different habitats throughout its developmental excursion, with the larva and adult settling on potato plants and the pupa in soil. Potato plants and agricultural soil contain a specific subset of aromatics. In the present study, we intended to determine whether the stage-specific bacterial flora plays a role in the catabolism of aromatics in .

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Forkhead box O (FoxO) protein, a major downstream transcription factor of insulin/insulin-like growth factor signaling/target of rapamycin pathway (IIS/TOR), is involved in the regulation of larval growth and the determination of organ size. FoxO also interacts with 20-hydroxyecdysone (20E) and juvenile hormone (JH) signal transduction pathways, and hence is critical for larval development in holometabolans. However, whether FoxO plays a critical role during larval metamorphosis needs to be further determined in Leptinotarsa decemlineata.

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Kynurenine pathway is critically important to catabolize tryptophan, to produce eye chromes, and to protect nervous system in insects. However, several issues related to tryptophan degradation remain to be clarified. In the present paper, we identified three genes (karmoisin, vermilion and cardinal) involved in kynurenine pathway in Henosepilachna vigintioctopunctata.

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In Leptinotarsa decemlineata, a final-instar wandering larva typically undergoes an ontogenetic niche shift (ONS), from potato plant during the foraging stage to its pupation site below ground. Using high-throughput sequencing of the bacterial 16S ribosomal RNA gene, we determined the hypothesis that the L. decemlineata pupae harbor stage-specific bacteria to meet the physiological requirements for underground habitat.

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Bacteria of the genus are opportunistic and have been documented in the guts of several insect species. Here, we present the complete genome sequence of strain CPBW01, isolated from the wings of the Colorado potato beetle, , collected from potato fields in Urumqi (43.71N, 87.

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Henosepilachna vigintioctopunctata is a serious insect pest which attacks a large number of nightshades and cucurbits in Asian countries, Brazil and Australia. Prolonged application of traditional pesticides has caused environmental pollution and exerted deleterious effects on human health. Finding new approaches with high target specificity and low environmental contamination has become an urgent task.

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