Abstract
The plant–pest interaction and its mechanisms are a novel research direction for pest control. They provide molecular targets for developing new pesticides and targeted control measures to control insect herbivores. Glucosinolate is a large family of secondary substances found in cruciferous plants that are harmful to herbivorous insects. Specialist herbivores have developed specific anti-defense genes and detoxifying mechanisms against glucosinolate from the host plant, but how generalist herbivores respond to glucosinolate at the molecular level is unknown. In this study, we investigated the effects of different glucosinolate concentrations on the growth and development of Helicoverpa armigera. Moreover, the expression of sulfatase genes (HaSulfs) was also checked following exposure to glucosinolate concentrations. The developmental duration of larvae and pre-pupa of H. armigera was significantly increased by 14.79–25.03% after feeding glucosinolate compared to the control. Quantitative Real-Time PCR (RT-qPCR) was carried out to analyze the expression of HaSulf family genes in the midgut of fifth instar larvae of H. armigera. The results showed that the upregulated expression patterns of HaSulf family genes were diversified after feeding at different concentrations. The expression level of HaSulf was detected with the HaSulf antibody. Only the glucosinolate-fed larvae had a visible target band and were mainly distributed in the midgut wall. Taken together, glucosinolate can significantly affect the growth and development of H. armigera larvae. It can induce the expression of HaSulf in the midgut of H. armigera at gene and protein levels. This study could be useful to understand the development of plant-derived insecticides resistance in H. armigera.
Highlights
The cotton bollworm, Helicoverpa armigera Hübner (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae), is a worldwide pest that causes severe damage to economic crops [1]
The development duration of H. armigera was significantly delayed in the fifth instar and the pre-pupal stage
The pupa weight results showed that low concentrations of glucosinolate (2 ppm) had a positive impact on H. armigera growth and development as Agronomy 2021,c1o1,mx FpOaRrePdEEtRoRtEhVeIEcWontrol group (p < 0.05) (Figure 3A)
Summary
The cotton bollworm, Helicoverpa armigera Hübner (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae), is a worldwide pest that causes severe damage to economic crops [1]. Chemical insecticides [2,3] and transgenic Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) crops [4,5] are widely used to control them, but their long-term application has led to the gradual resistance of H. armigera. People have been guiding the rational use of pesticides to overcome or delay the development of resistance. Ignoring the mutual restriction between chemical control and plants, plant secondary substances and pests may accelerate the development of pest resistance and reduction of crop resistance, leading to pest outbreaks [6,7,8]. It is important to promote the selection of pest-targeting genes and the development of green pesticides [9,10,11,12]
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