Rapid PCR-based method for herbivore dietary evaluation using plant-specific primers

PLoS One. 2021 Nov 22;16(11):e0260105. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0260105. eCollection 2021.

Abstract

Polyphagous pests cause significant economic loss worldwide through feeding damage on various cash crops. However, their diets in agricultural landscapes remain largely unexplored. Pest dietary evaluation in agricultural fields is a challenging task currently approached through visual observation of plant feeding and microscopic identification of semi-digested plant material in pest's guts. While molecular gut content analysis using metabarcoding approaches using universal primers (e.g., rbcl and trnL) have been successful in evaluating polyphagous pest diet, this method is relatively costly and time-consuming. Hence, there is a need for a rapid, specific, sensitive, and cost-effective method to screen for crops in the gut of pests. This is the first study to develop plant-specific primers that target various regions of their genomes, designed using a whole plant genome sequence. We selected Verticillium wilt disease resistance protein (VE-1) and pathogenesis related protein-coding genes 1-5 (PR-1-5) as our targets and designed species-specific primers for 14 important crops in the agroecosystems. Using amplicon sizes ranging from 115 to 407 bp, we developed two multiplex primer mixes that can separate nine and five plant species per PCR reaction, respectively. These two designed primer mixes provide a rapid, sensitive and specific route for polyphagous pest dietary evaluation in agroecosystems. This work will enable future research to rapidly expand our knowledge on the diet preference and range of crops that pests consume in various agroecosystems, which will help in the redesign and development of new crop rotation regimes to minimize polyphagous pest pressure and damage on crops.

Publication types

  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Agriculture
  • Cost-Benefit Analysis
  • Crops, Agricultural / genetics*
  • Data Collection
  • Disease Resistance
  • Feeding Behavior / physiology*
  • Gastrointestinal Microbiome
  • Herbivory / genetics
  • Hyperphagia / genetics
  • Hyperphagia / metabolism
  • Nucleic Acid Amplification Techniques
  • Pest Control / methods*
  • Plants / genetics
  • Polymerase Chain Reaction
  • Research Design

Grants and funding

JS received funding from a USDA Non-Assistance Cooperative Agreement, 58-6080-9-006. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.