Institute of Vegetables and Flowers, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, 100081, China.
Insect Sci. 2021 Dec;28(6):1541-1552. doi: 10.1111/1744-7917.12898. Epub 2021 Jan 5.
The invasive pest whitefly (Bemisia tabaci) is a complex species, of which Middle East-Minor Asia 1 (MEAM1) and Mediterranean (MED) are the two most damaging members. Previous research showed that cabbage is frequently infested with MEAM1 but seldomly with MED, and this difference in performance is associated with glucosinolate (GS) content. Some insects can modify GS using glucosinolate sulfatase (SULF), the activity of which is regulated by sulfatase modifying factor 1 (SUMF1); therefore, to increase our understanding of different performances of MEAM1 and MED on cabbage plants, we identified and compared nine putative SULFs and one SUMF in MEAM1 and MED. We found that the lengths of two genes, BtSulf2 and BtSulf4, differed between MEAM1 and MED. The messenger RNA levels of BtSulf4 increased more than 20-fold after MEAM1 and MED adults were exposed to GS, but BtSulf2 expression was only induced by GS in MEAM1. Knockdown of BtSulf2 and BtSulf4 in MEAM1 resulted in a substantial increase in the mortality of GS-treated adults but not in MED. These results indicate that differences in BtSulf2 and BtSulf4 sequences and/or expression may explain why MEAM1 performs better than MED on cabbage. Our results provide a basis for future functional research on SULF and SUMF in B. tabaci.
入侵性害虫烟粉虱（Bemisia tabaci）是一个复杂的物种，其中中东-小亚细亚 1 型（MEAM1）和地中海型（MED）是两个最具破坏性的成员。先前的研究表明，白菜经常受到 MEAM1 的侵害，但很少受到 MED 的侵害，这种表现上的差异与硫代葡萄糖苷（GS）含量有关。一些昆虫可以使用硫代葡萄糖苷硫基酶（SULF）来修饰 GS，其活性受到硫基酶修饰因子 1（SUMF1）的调节；因此，为了增加我们对 MEAM1 和 MED 在白菜上不同表现的理解，我们在 MEAM1 和 MED 中鉴定和比较了九个假定的 SULFs 和一个 SUMF。我们发现，两个基因，BtSulf2 和 BtSulf4，在 MEAM1 和 MED 之间的长度不同。在 MEAM1 和 MED 成虫暴露于 GS 后，BtSulf4 的信使 RNA 水平增加了 20 多倍，但 BtSulf2 的表达仅在 MEAM1 中被 GS 诱导。在 MEAM1 中敲低 BtSulf2 和 BtSulf4 导致 GS 处理的成虫死亡率显著增加，但在 MED 中则没有。这些结果表明，BtSulf2 和 BtSulf4 序列和/或表达的差异可能解释了为什么 MEAM1 在白菜上的表现优于 MED。我们的研究结果为今后 B. tabaci 中 SULF 和 SUMF 的功能研究提供了依据。
