Center for Medical, Agricultural and Veterinary Entomology, United States Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, Gainesville, FL 32608, USA.
Department of Entomology, LSU Agricultural Center, 404 Life Science Building, Baton Rouge, LA 70803, USA.
Genes (Basel). 2023 Jul 24;14(7):1509. doi: 10.3390/genes14071509.
The noctuid moth soybean looper (SBL), (Walker) is an economically important pest of soybeans ( (L.) Merr.) in the southeastern United States. It has characteristics that are of particular concern for pest mitigation that include a broad host range, the capacity for annual long-distance flight, and resistance in some populations to important pesticides such as pyrethroids and chitin synthesis inhibitor. The biology of SBL in the United States resembles that of the fellow noctuid fall armyworm (FAW), (J.E. Smith), a major pest of corn and several other crops. FAW exhibits a population structure in that it can be divided into two groups (host strains) that differ in their host preferences but are broadly sympatric and exhibit incomplete reproductive isolation. In this paper, strategies used to characterize the FAW strains were applied to SBL to assess the likelihood of population structure in the United States. Evidence is presented for two SBL strains that were defined phylogenetically and display differences in the proportions of a small set of genetic markers. The populations exhibit evidence of reproductive barriers sufficient to allow persistent asymmetry in the distribution of mitochondrial haplotypes. The identified molecular markers will facilitate studies characterizing the behaviors of these two populations, with relevance to pest mitigation and efforts to prevent further dispersal of the resistance traits.
夜蛾科大豆夜蛾（SBL），（Walker）是美国东南部大豆（（L.）Merr.）的一种重要经济害虫。它具有一些特别值得关注的特点，包括广泛的宿主范围、每年远距离飞行的能力，以及一些种群对重要杀虫剂如拟除虫菊酯和几丁质合成抑制剂的抗性。SBL 的生物学在美国与同属夜蛾科的秋行军虫（FAW），（J.E. Smith）相似，FAW 是玉米和其他几种作物的主要害虫。FAW 表现出一种种群结构，它可以分为两组（宿主株系），它们在宿主偏好上有所不同，但广泛共存，并表现出不完全的生殖隔离。在本文中，用于描述 FAW 株系的策略被应用于 SBL，以评估美国种群结构的可能性。有证据表明存在两种 SBL 株系，它们在系统发育上有区别，并在一小部分遗传标记的比例上存在差异。这些种群表现出足够的生殖障碍证据，允许线粒体单倍型分布的持续不对称。所确定的分子标记将有助于研究这两个种群的行为，这与害虫防治和防止抗性性状进一步扩散的努力有关。
