Fumigant activity and transcriptomic analysis of two plant essential oils against the tea green leafhopper, Matsuda.

The tea green leafhopper, () Matsuda, R., 1952 (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae), is currently one of the most devastating pests in the Chinese tea industry. The long-term use of chemical pesticides has a negative impact on human health, impeding the healthy and sustainable development of the tea industry in this region. Therefore, there is a need for non-chemical insecticides to control in tea plants. The essential oils from plants have been identified for their potential insecticidal ability; however, there is a lack of knowledge regarding the effect of plant essential oils on and its gene expression. In order to address these knowledge gaps, the components of and essential oils were analyzed in the present study using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. The fumigation toxicity of two essential oils on was tested using sealed conical flasks. In addition, We performed comparative transcriptome analyses of treated with or without essential oil. The 36-h lethal concentration (LC) values for treated with and essential oils were 0.474 and 1.204 μL mL respectively. Both essential oils exhibited the potential to control , but the fumigation activity of essential oil was more effective. A total of 2,309 differentially expressed genes were obtained by transcriptome sequencing of treated with essential oil. Many of differentially expressed genes were found to contain detoxifification genes, indicating that these families may have played an important role when was exposed to essential oil stress. We also found differential expression of genes related to redox-related gene families, suggesting the upregulation of genes associated with possible development of drug and stress resistance. This work offers new insights for the prevention and management of in the future.