In silico identification of effector proteins from generalist herbivore Spodoptera litura

Vinod Kumar Prajapati,Jyothilakshmi Vadassery,Mahendra Varma

doi:10.1186/s12864-020-07196-4

Vinod Kumar Prajapati, Jyothilakshmi Vadassery + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1186/s12864-020-07196-4

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Abstract

BackgroundThe common cutworm, Spodoptera litura Fabricius is a leaf and fruit feeding generalist insect of the order Lepidoptera and a destructive agriculture pest. The broad host range of the herbivore is due to its ability to downregulate plant defense across different plants. The identity of Spodoptera litura released effectors that downregulate plant defense are largely unknown. The current study aims to identify genes encoding effector proteins from salivary glands of S. litura (Fab.).ResultsHead and salivary glands of Spodoptera litura were used for de-novo transcriptome analysis and effector prediction. Eight hundred ninety-nine proteins from the head and 330 from salivary gland were identified as secretory proteins. Eight hundred eight proteins from the head and 267 from salivary gland proteins were predicted to be potential effector proteins.ConclusionsThis study is the first report on identification of potential effectors from Spodoptera litura salivary glands.

Highlights

The common cutworm, Spodoptera litura Fabricius is a leaf and fruit feeding generalist insect of the order Lepidoptera and a destructive agriculture pest
Labial and mandibular saliva that provides a milieu of elicitors/ Herbivore Associated Molecular Pattern (HAMP) and the effectors of which some are recognized by the plants and modulates the plant defense [5]
Litura salivary glands and head were sequenced using Illumina sequencing platform resulting in a total of 48.16 Mbp and 44.53 Mbp raw reads respectively

Summary

Introduction

The common cutworm, Spodoptera litura Fabricius is a leaf and fruit feeding generalist insect of the order Lepidoptera and a destructive agriculture pest. Spodoptera litura Fabricius (Order-Lepidoptera) or common cutworm is one of the most destructive insect pest of agricultural crops, with more than 120 host plants globally [1]. They are polyphagous defoliators which have detrimental effect on cotton, flax, groundnut, jute, maize, rice, soybean, tea, tobacco, and vegetables throughout the tropical and temperate Asia [2]. Spodoptera frugiperda (Fall armyworm) is a devastating pest and has caused USD 3– 6 billion annual damage to maize and other African food staples [4] As they feed, caterpillars use oral secretion (OS) to transport the chewed leaf tissues into their mouth. It is known that S. littoralis oral secretion contains unidentified effectors that suppress systemic Ca2+ elevation and wound-induced responses, like the expression of ERF transcription factor [7, 8]

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