AI Article Synopsis

  • The Colorado potato beetle is a significant pest due to its ability to adapt to various plants and climates while rapidly developing resistance to insecticides.
  • Research uses genome sequencing and transcriptomics to explore the beetle's rapid evolutionary changes, focusing on genetic adaptations that facilitate herbivory and insecticide resistance.
  • Key findings include the role of transposable elements in its genome, gene expansions related to feeding, and similarities in insecticide resistance genes with other beetles, offering insights for sustainable pest management strategies.

Article Abstract

The Colorado potato beetle is one of the most challenging agricultural pests to manage. It has shown a spectacular ability to adapt to a variety of solanaceaeous plants and variable climates during its global invasion, and, notably, to rapidly evolve insecticide resistance. To examine evidence of rapid evolutionary change, and to understand the genetic basis of herbivory and insecticide resistance, we tested for structural and functional genomic changes relative to other arthropod species using genome sequencing, transcriptomics, and community annotation. Two factors that might facilitate rapid evolutionary change include transposable elements, which comprise at least 17% of the genome and are rapidly evolving compared to other Coleoptera, and high levels of nucleotide diversity in rapidly growing pest populations. Adaptations to plant feeding are evident in gene expansions and differential expression of digestive enzymes in gut tissues, as well as expansions of gustatory receptors for bitter tasting. Surprisingly, the suite of genes involved in insecticide resistance is similar to other beetles. Finally, duplications in the RNAi pathway might explain why Leptinotarsa decemlineata has high sensitivity to dsRNA. The L. decemlineata genome provides opportunities to investigate a broad range of phenotypes and to develop sustainable methods to control this widely successful pest.

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Source
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5792627PMC
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-20154-1DOI Listing

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