Population dynamics and molecular adaption of Tetranychus cinnabarinus to long term thermal stress.

Abstract

Global warming is a general trend of current era. Temperature is one of the most important non-biological factors that affects the development, life cycle and distribution of arthropods, which are a major component of agriculture pests. This study focused on life table parameters and the molecular adaption of Tetranychus cinnabarinus under long-term thermal stress. The life tables of T. cinnabarinus were constructed at room temperature (26°C) and high temperature (34°C). Results showed that although life span of mites was shortened, the developmental periods of egg, larva, nymph were accelerated and the peak egg laying period came earlier under high temperature, which resulted in faster expansion of pest mite population. RNA-seq was used to reveal the thermal adaption mechanism according to differentially expressed genes. Combined with transcriptome data and qPCR verification, MAPK, CAT, HSP20, and HSP70 were found highly expressed at 34°C, which were associated with thermal adaption of T. cinnabarinus. RNAi analysis proved that expression of HSP20 was closely related to survival of mites under high temperature. These results indicated that long-term high temperature treatment was beneficial to the expansion of the T. cinnabarinus population. The genes involved in heat tolerance of T. cinnabarinus such as MAPK-HSP pathway provides ideas for subsequent control measures. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.