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Polyphagous Pest (polyphagou + pest)
Selected AbstractsForaging behaviour of Helicoverpa armigera first instar larvae on crop plants of different developmental stagesJOURNAL OF APPLIED ENTOMOLOGY, Issue 5 2005M.-L. Johnson Abstract:, Understanding how insect pests forage on their food plants can help optimize management strategies. Helicoverpa armigera (Hübner) (Lep., Noctuidae) is a major polyphagous pest of agricultural crops worldwide. The immature stages feed and forage on crops at all stages of plant development, damaging fruiting and non-fruiting structures, yet very little is known about the influence of host type or stage on the location and behaviour of larvae. Through semi-continuous observation, we evaluated the foraging (movement and feeding) behaviours of H. armigera first instar larvae as well as the proportion of time spent at key locations on mungbean [Vigna radiata (L.) Wilczek] and pigeon pea [Cajanus cajan (L.) Millspaugh] of differing developmental stages: seedling- and mature (flowering/pod fill)-stage plants. Both host type and age affected the behaviour of larvae. Larvae spent more time in the upper parts of mature plants than on seedlings and tended to stay at the top of mature plants if they moved there. This difference was greater in pigeon pea than in mungbean. The proportion of time allocated to feeding on different parts of a plant differed with host and age. More feeding occurred in the top of mature pigeon pea plants but did not differ between mature and seedling mungbean plants. The duration of key behaviours did not differ between plant ages in either crop type and was similar between hosts although resting bouts were substantially longer on mungbeans. Thus a polyphagous species such as H. armigera does not forage in equivalent ways on different hosts in the first instar stage. [source] New methods for the detection of insecticide resistant Myzus persicae in the U.K. suction trap networkAGRICULTURAL AND FOREST ENTOMOLOGY, Issue 3 2008James A. Anstead Abstract 1,Myzus persicae is a highly polyphagous pest of U.K. agriculture. It presents particular control difficulties because it has developed resistance to several insecticide classes. 2,For almost 20 years, M. persicae collected in the U.K. suction trap network have been analysed for insecticide resistance and the data disseminated to growers via a resistance bulletin. These data are generated by the biochemical analysis of individuals for two major resistance phenotypes: (i) elevated carboxylesterase and (ii) modified acetylcholinesterase (MACE). 3,The development of new polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based technologies using fluorescently labelled probes has allowed other resistance mechanisms, such as knockdown resistance to pyrethroids (kdr/super-kdr), to be detected and has greatly increased the speed and accuracy of resistance monitoring. Unfortunately, these newer PCR-based assays are incompatible with the older biochemical assays. 4,The present study describes the development and testing of new compatible methods for detecting elevated carboxylesterases and MACE for use on M. persicae caught in the field or suction traps. 5,These new tests have significant advantages over present methodologies by allowing individual aphids to be tested for three resistance mechanisms quickly and accurately on a single platform. [source] Constitutive expression of Arabidopsis NPR1 confers enhanced resistance to the early instars of Spodoptera litura in transgenic tobaccoPHYSIOLOGIA PLANTARUM, Issue 4 2008Gargi Meur In Arabidopsis, NPR1 (AtNPR1) regulates salicylic acid (SA)-mediated activation of PR genes at the onset of systemic acquired resistance. AtNPR1 also modulates SA-induced suppression of jasmonic acid-responsive gene expression, and npr1 mutants manifest enhanced herbivore resistance. We have raised stable transgenic tobacco lines, expressing AtNPR1 constitutively, which showed elevated expression of PR1 and PR2 genes upon SA treatment. Herbivore bioassays with a generalist polyphagous pest, Spodoptera litura, revealed that the transgenic lines exhibited enhanced resistance compared to the wild-type plants, particularly with respect to younger larval populations. Insect-mediated injury induced several protease inhibitors (PIs), more significantly a 40-kDa serine PI in all the tobacco lines, but the induction was higher in the transgenic plants. We show in this communication that heterologous expression of AtNPR1 provides enhanced resistance to early larval populations of the herbivore, Spodoptera in transgenic tobacco plants. [source] Adenanthera pavonina trypsin inhibitor retard growth of Anagasta kuehniella (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae)ARCHIVES OF INSECT BIOCHEMISTRY AND PHYSIOLOGY (ELECTRONIC), Issue 4 2010Maria Lígia Rodrigues Macedo Abstract Anagasta kuehniella is a polyphagous pest that feeds on a wide variety of stored products. The possible roles suggested for seed proteinase inhibitors include the function as a part of the plant defensive system against pest via inhibition of their proteolytic enzymes. In this study, a trypsin inhibitor (ApTI) was purified from Adenanthera pavonina seed and was tested for insect growth regulatory effect. The chronic ingestion of ApTI did result in a significant reduction in larval survival and weight. Larval and pupal developmental time of larvae fed on ApTI diet at 1% was significantly longer; the larval period was extended by 5 days and pupal period was 10 days longer, therefore delaying by up to 20 days and resulting in a prolonged period of development from larva to adult. As a result, the ApTI diet emergence rate was only 28% while the emergence rate of control larvae was 80%. The percentage of surviving adults (%S) decreased to 62%. The fourth instar larvae reared on a diet containing 1% ApTI showed a decrease in tryptic activity of gut and that no novel proteolytic form resistant to ApTI was induced. In addition, the tryptic activity in ApTI -fed larvae was sensitive to ApTI. These results suggest that ApTI have a potential antimetabolic effect when ingested by A. kuehniella. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [source] Expression, purification, and characterization of pro-phenoloxidase-activating serine protease from Spodoptera lituraARCHIVES OF INSECT BIOCHEMISTRY AND PHYSIOLOGY (ELECTRONIC), Issue 2 2009Naresh Arora Abstract One of the important trigger molecules for innate immunity is a serine protease that activates zymogen phenol oxidase (PPO). Central to wound healing response is the activation of phenol oxidase zymogen. Molecular characterization of phenol oxidase has been recently reported by us. Here, we report isolation, cloning, expression, and purification of prophenol oxidase activating enzyme 1 (slppae1) from polyphagous pest, Spodoptera litura. SLPPAE1 is induced within 6,h of physical injury. The structural features of the mature polypeptide are reminiscent of other lepidopteran PPAE in having a signal peptide, propeptide, and catalytically active polypeptide. The cDNA has been expressed in Sf21 cells using baculovirus expression vector. Fractionation of expressing Sf21 cells revealed its expression in the membranes. The recombinant protein was solubilized from membranes and purified by Ni-NTA affinity chromatography. The purified enzyme is catalytically active on chromogenic substrate, activates recombinantly expressed prophenol oxidase (PPO) of S. litura, and is sensitive to inhibition by aprotenin. N-terminal sequencing of processed phenol oxidase revealed 11,kDa propeptide instead of in-silico predicted 6,kDa polypeptide. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [source] | ||||||||||