Killiny Nabil, Brodersen Craig R
Citrus Research and Education Center, IFAS, University of Florida, 700 Experiment Station Road, Lake Alfred, FL 33850, USA.
School of the Forestry and Environmental Studies, Yale University, 195 Prospect, New Haven, CT 06511, USA.
Insects. 2022 Aug 7;13(8):710. doi: 10.3390/insects13080710.
Dissecting the heads of small insects belonging to the order Hemiptera for detailed anatomical investigation with light or scanning electron microscopy is difficult, time-consuming, and destructive, often resulting in sample preparation artifacts. Nevertheless, the structural details of these insects often hold critical information regarding their interactions with bacterial pathogens. For example, the glassy-winged sharpshooter (GWSS) is an efficient vector of the bacterium , the causal agent of Pierce's disease in grape vines, but the foregut of this species is exceptionally difficult to dissect. Here, we describe a simple, non-destructive method to investigate the structure of the anterior gut of GWSS using high-resolution micro-computed X-ray tomography (microCT). The use of microCT eliminates the need for destructive dissection and reveals the morphology of small insects in three dimensions, allowing the user to virtually dissect the sample. The use of microCT imaging is a promising and powerful tool in the entomological sciences for studying the structures of vector insects, especially for difficult-to-dissect regions such as the foregut.
解剖半翅目小昆虫的头部，以便用光学显微镜或扫描电子显微镜进行详细的解剖学研究，既困难又耗时，还具有破坏性，常常会导致样本制备假象。然而，这些昆虫的结构细节往往包含有关它们与细菌病原体相互作用的关键信息。例如，玻璃翅叶蝉（GWSS）是细菌的有效传播媒介，该细菌是葡萄藤上皮尔氏病的病原体，但这种昆虫的前肠特别难以解剖。在这里，我们描述了一种简单、非破坏性的方法，使用高分辨率微计算机断层扫描（microCT）来研究GWSS前肠的结构。使用microCT无需进行破坏性解剖，并能以三维方式揭示小昆虫的形态，让使用者能够虚拟解剖样本。在昆虫学领域，使用microCT成像对于研究媒介昆虫的结构来说是一种很有前景且强大的工具，特别是对于像前肠这样难以解剖的区域。
