Seed Priming of Rice Varieties with Decoyinine Improve Their Resistance against the Brown Planthopper Nilaparvata lugens

Abstract

The brown planthopper (BPH), Nilaparvata lugens Stål (Hemiptera: Delphacidae) is one of the most destructive rice pests in Asia. The microbial metabolite decoyinine (DCY) has been extracted from Streptomyces hygroscopicus. Recent studies have suggested that treating rice seeds with DCY could improve the growth and yield of rice. To further assess the effects of priming the seeds of different rice varieties with DCY on rice seedling resistance against BPH, an age-stage, two-sex life table and choice test were applied to investigate the individual fitness, population parameters, and preference behavior of BPHs in this study. The results indicated that feeding on rice seedlings grown from seeds primed with DCY significantly affected BPHs’ adult longevity, oviposition period, fecundity, as well as the net reproductive rate (R0), intrinsic rate of increase (rm), finite rate of increase (λ), doubling time (DT), and population size in terms of BPH. The honeydew excretions and the weights of BPHs fed on DCY-pretreated rice plants were remarkably lowered. The two-way ANOVA results also showed that there were significant differences in the biological parameters, honeydew excretions, and of BPH weights owing to DCY treatment, rice variety, and the interactions between DCY treatment and rice variety. Additionally, the feeding and oviposition preferences of BPHs for the pretreated rice plants were reduced. Our results imply that the priming of seeds with DCY can improve rice resistance against BPH, which could facilitate the utilization of seed priming as a new avenue for effective crop protection.