Abstract
The striped stem borer, Chilo suppressalis Walker (Lepidoptera: Crambidae), is one of the most serious rice pests. Besides attacking rice, it also feeds on an economically important vegetable crop, water-oat Zizania latifolia. The species feeding on water-oat has higher growth and survival rate than those on rice, suggesting their success in adaptation to the new host plant. However, little is known about the molecular mechanisms of host plant adaptation. Here we investigated the midgut transcriptome responses of C. suppressalis larvae reared on rice and water-oat. A total of 1,633 differentially expressed genes were identified, with a greater number up-regulated on the more delicious new host. The up-regulation of most digestive and detoxification-related genes may be the result of adaptation to the changes in nutritional requirements and toxic chemicals during host shift. In contrast, down-regulation of ribosomal genes may be related to their better development performance when feeding on the new host. In conclusion, our results suggest that transcriptional regulation of genes related to digestion, detoxification and ribosome may play an important role in adaptation of C. suppressalis to a new host plant.
Highlights
The striped stem borer, Chilo suppressalis Walker (Lepidoptera: Crambidae), is one of the most serious rice pests in Asia, southern Europe, and northern Africa[1,2,3,4]
A comparative transcriptome analysis between C. suppressalis feeding on rice and that on water-oat was performed to identify differentially expressed genes related to host plant adaptation
This study presents the first exploration of transcriptional changes underlying C. suppressalis adaptation to a new host plant
Summary
The striped stem borer, Chilo suppressalis Walker (Lepidoptera: Crambidae), is one of the most serious rice pests in Asia, southern Europe, and northern Africa[1,2,3,4]. Because of adaptation to these two host plants, C. suppressalis showed other variation in ecology and biology, such as the seasonal peak of emergence[12,15,20], courtship and mating behaviors[19,21,22,23,24], and overwintering biology[18,25,26,27] Despite these ecological and biological variations revealed after host shift, the molecular mechanisms underlying host plant adaptation remain unclear. A comparative transcriptome analysis between C. suppressalis feeding on rice and that on water-oat was performed to identify differentially expressed genes related to host plant adaptation. This study presents the first exploration of transcriptional changes underlying C. suppressalis adaptation to a new host plant
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