Abstract
While the host plant use of insect herbivores is important for understanding their interactions and coevolution, field evidence of these preferences is limited for generalist species. Molecular diet analysis provides an effective option for gaining such information, but data from field‐sampled individuals are often greatly affected by the local composition of their host plants. The polyphagous mirid bug Apolygus lucorum (Meyer‐Dür) seasonally migrates across the Bohai Sea, and molecular analysis of migrant bugs collected on crop‐free islands can be used to estimate the host plant use of A. lucorum across the large area (northern China) from where these individuals come. In this study, the host plant use of A. lucorum adults was determined by identifying plant DNA using a three‐locus DNA barcode (rbcL, trnH‐psbA, and ITS) in the gut of migrant individuals collected on Beihuang Island. We successfully identified the host plant families of A. lucorum adults, and the results indicated that captured bugs fed on at least 17 plant families. In addition, gut analyses revealed that 35.9% of A. lucorum individuals fed on multiple host plants but that most individuals (64.1%) fed on only one plant species. Cotton, Gossypium hirsutum L., DNA was found in 35.8% of the A. lucorum bugs examined, which was much higher than the percentage of bugs in which other host plants were found. Our work provides a new understanding of multiple host plant use by A. lucorum under natural conditions, and these findings are available for developing effective management strategies against this polyphagous pest species.
Highlights
| INTRODUCTIONDNA barcoding uses short DNA sequence markers for the tax‐ onomic identification of species (Hebert, Penton, Burns, Janzen, & Hallwachs, 2004; Heise, Babik, Kubisz, & Kajtoch, 2015), which can overcome the problems associated with more conventional meth‐ odologies, as it can enable rapid, sensitive, and accurate plant spe‐ cies identification by detecting host plant‐specific DNA extracted from herbivorous insects (Traugott, Kamenova, Ruess, Seeber, & Plantegenest, 2013; Valentini, Pompanon, & Taberlet, 2009)
The interaction between insect herbivores and plants greatly drives their coevolution (Becerra, 2003; Berenbaum, 2001; Gaunt & Miles, 2002; Hare, 2012; Schuman & Baldwin, 2015; Wu & Baldwin, 2010)
DNA barcoding uses short DNA sequence markers for the tax‐ onomic identification of species (Hebert, Penton, Burns, Janzen, & Hallwachs, 2004; Heise, Babik, Kubisz, & Kajtoch, 2015), which can overcome the problems associated with more conventional meth‐ odologies, as it can enable rapid, sensitive, and accurate plant spe‐ cies identification by detecting host plant‐specific DNA extracted from herbivorous insects (Traugott, Kamenova, Ruess, Seeber, & Plantegenest, 2013; Valentini, Pompanon, & Taberlet, 2009)
Summary
DNA barcoding uses short DNA sequence markers for the tax‐ onomic identification of species (Hebert, Penton, Burns, Janzen, & Hallwachs, 2004; Heise, Babik, Kubisz, & Kajtoch, 2015), which can overcome the problems associated with more conventional meth‐ odologies, as it can enable rapid, sensitive, and accurate plant spe‐ cies identification by detecting host plant‐specific DNA extracted from herbivorous insects (Traugott, Kamenova, Ruess, Seeber, & Plantegenest, 2013; Valentini, Pompanon, & Taberlet, 2009) For these reasons, this technique has attracted increasing attention in the past several years as a method for determining the dietary com‐ position of herbivores (Erickson et al, 2017; García‐Robledo et al, 2013; Heise et al, 2015; Jurado‐Rivera, Vogler, Reid, Petitpierre, & Gomez‐Zurita, 2009; Navarro, Jurado‐Rivera, Gómez‐Zurita, Lyal, & Vogler, 2010; Staudacher, Wallinger, Schallhart, & Traugott, 2011). We first collected migrant A. lucorum adults using light traps on the island of Beihuang, sequenced short stretches of plant‐specific genes (i.e., rbcL, ITS, and trnH‐psbA) from the gut contents of each A. lucorum adult, and compared the resultant DNA sequences with GenBank sequences to confirm the host plant species
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