State Key Laboratory of Tea Plant Biology and Utilization, Anhui Agricultural University, Hefei, 230036, China.
School of Forestry and Landscape Architecture, Anhui Agricultural University, Hefei, 230036, China.
Sci Rep. 2019 Mar 22;9(1):5021. doi: 10.1038/s41598-019-41637-9.
Ectropis obliqua Prout (Lepidoptera: Geometridae) is the most devastating insect pest of tea plants in China and infests thousands of hectares of tea plantations in China annually. (-)-Epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG) is a major phenolic compound in tea leaves and has a strong antibacterial function. Here, we show that EGCG can effectively improve the fitness of E. obliqua larvae and present the reason by which EGCG promotes larval fitness. In this study, we compared the fitness difference among Control, Antibiotic and Treatment of larvae. The fitness of larvae treated with EGCG and antibiotic was similar and better than that of control group. We also demonstrated that EGCG treatment could significantly reduce species richness and abundance of gut bacteria in E. obliqua larvae. Hence that we speculate that EGCG promotes larval fitness and is associated with ECGG antimicrobial activity. In short, our study provides evidence of the E. obliqua larvae have adapted to secondary compounds found in tea leaves, and may even benefit from these compounds. Our study also contributes to a greater understanding of the reason involved in plant-insect interactions.
斜纹绿尺蛾（鳞翅目：尺蛾科）是中国茶园中最具破坏性的昆虫害虫，每年在中国数千公顷的茶园中发生。（-）-表没食子儿茶素没食子酸酯（EGCG）是茶叶中的主要酚类化合物，具有很强的抗菌功能。在这里，我们表明 EGCG 可以有效提高斜纹绿尺蛾幼虫的适应性，并提出 EGCG 促进幼虫适应性的原因。在这项研究中，我们比较了对照组、抗生素组和处理组幼虫之间的适应性差异。用 EGCG 和抗生素处理的幼虫的适应性与对照组相似且更好。我们还表明，EGCG 处理可以显著降低斜纹绿尺蛾幼虫肠道细菌的物种丰富度和丰度。因此，我们推测 EGCG 促进了幼虫的适应性，并且与 ECGG 的抗菌活性有关。简而言之，我们的研究为斜纹绿尺蛾幼虫已经适应了茶叶中发现的次生化合物提供了证据，甚至可能从中受益。我们的研究也有助于更好地理解植物-昆虫相互作用中涉及的原因。
