Variation in life history traits and transcriptome associated with adaptation to diet shifts in the ladybird Cryptolaemus montrouzieri

BMC Genomics

Research Article

Adam Ślipiński¹  Patrick De Clercq²  Chang Pan³  Hong Pang³  Hao-Sen Li³ 

[1] Australian National Insect Collection, National Research Collections, CSIRO, Australia, GPO Box 1700, ACT 2601, Canberra, Australia;Department of Crop Protection, Faculty of Bioscience Engineering, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium;State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol, Ecology and Evolution, School of Life Sciences, Sun Yat-sen University, 510275, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China;

关键词: Predacious ladybird;    Cryptolaemus montrouzieri;    Coccid;    Aphid;    Diet shift;    Life history;    Transcriptome;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12864-016-2611-8

 received in 2016-01-29, accepted in 2016-04-05,  发布年份 2016

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundDespite the broad diet range of many predatory ladybirds, the mechanisms involved in their adaptation to diet shifts are not completely understood. Here, we explored how a primarily coccidophagous ladybird Cryptolaemus montrouzieri adapts to feeding on aphids.ResultsBased on the lower survival rate, longer developmental time, and lower adult body weight and reproduction rate of the predator, the aphid Megoura japonica proved being less suitable to support C. montrouzieri as compared with the citrus mealybug Planococcus citri. The results indicated up-regulation of genes related to ribosome and translation in fourth instars, which may be related to their suboptimal development. Also, several genes related to biochemical transport and metabolism, and detoxification were up-regulated as a result of adaptation to the changes in nutritional and non-nutritional (toxic) components of the prey.ConclusionOur results indicated that C. montrouzieri succeeded in feeding on aphids by regulation of genes related to development, digestion and detoxification. Thus, we argue that these candidate genes are valuable for further studies of the functional evolution of ladybirds led by diet shifts.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© Li et al. 2016