ORCID Profile
0000-0002-5442-5819
Current Organisation
CSIRO
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Publisher: Wiley
Date: 20-08-2020
DOI: 10.1111/JEN.12813
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 07-02-2023
DOI: 10.1111/JEN.13101
Abstract: The Queensland fruit fly, Bactrocera tryoni , is an economically important pest insect of horticultural crops in Australia, damaging a wide variety of fruits and vegetables. To study the B. tryoni –fruit interaction, we conducted a transcriptomic investigation of B. tryoni larvae feeding on three ripening stages of tomato fruit, which had been previously shown to influence larval performance. Fruit fly larval survival in immature tomato fruit is very poor, which we hypothesized to be due to the effect of tomato fruit toxins which are mostly expressed in green fruit. We found 2709 transcripts differentially expressed in larvae feeding on the three ripening stages. The transcript expression pattern was most ergent between larvae feeding in immature fruit compared with fully ripe fruit, with intermediate expression in larvae feeding in colour‐break fruit. Gene Set Enrichment Analysis showed that larvae fed in immature fruit had a higher number of depleted GO terms in comparison with larvae fed on fully ripe fruit, particularly GO terms associated with larval development, metabolism and basic cellular functions. Enriched GO terms in larvae fed on fully ripe fruit showed the opposite pattern, with a greater number of enriched terms related to larval growth and detoxification processes. We concluded that poor larval survival in immature‐green fruit is likely because the substrate offers a very poor diet for larvae, which limits normal developmental functions. By contrast, in colour‐break and fully ripe fruit the substrate allows normal development, including the expression of metabolically costly detoxification mechanisms.
Publisher: MDPI AG
Date: 10-05-2022
Abstract: The larvae of frugivorous tephritid fruit flies feed within fruit and are global pests of horticulture. With the reduced use of pesticides, alternative control methods are needed, of which fruit resistance is one. In the current study, we explicitly tested for phenotypic evidence of induced fruit defences by running concurrent larval survival experiments with fruit on or off the plant, assuming that defence induction would be stopped or reduced by fruit picking. This was accompanied by RT-qPCR analysis of fruit defence and insect detoxification gene expression. Our fruit treatments were picking status (unpicked vs. picked) and ripening stage (colour break vs. fully ripe), our fruit fly was the polyphagous Bactrocera tryoni, and larval survival was assessed through destructive fruit s ling at 48 and 120 h, respectively. The gene expression study targeted larval and fruit tissue s les collected at 48 h and 120 h from picked and unpicked colour-break fruit. At 120 h in colour-break fruit, larval survival was significantly higher in the picked versus unpicked fruit. The gene expression patterns in larval and plant tissue were not affected by picking status, but many putative plant defence and insect detoxification genes were upregulated across the treatments. The larval survival results strongly infer an induced defence mechanism in colour-break tomato fruit that is stronger/faster in unpicked fruits however, the gene expression patterns failed to provide the same clear-cut treatment effect. The lack of conformity between these results could be related to expression changes in uns led candidate genes, or due to critical changes in gene expression that occurred during the uns led periods.
Location: Iran (Islamic Republic of)
Location: No location found
Location: Iran (Islamic Republic of)
Location: Iran (Islamic Republic of)
Location: Iran (Islamic Republic of)
No related grants have been discovered for Shirin Christensen (nee Roohigohar).