Characterization and transcriptomic analysis of a native fungal pathogen against the rice pest Nilaparvata lugens

Zheng-Liang Wang; Yan-Dan Wang; Yi-Qing Cheng; Zi-Hong Ye; Guang-Fu Liu; Xiao-Ping Yu

doi:10.3389/fmicb.2023.1162113

Characterization and transcriptomic analysis of a native fungal pathogen against the rice pest Nilaparvata lugens

Front Microbiol. 2023 May 18:14:1162113. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2023.1162113. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Zheng-Liang Wang¹, Yan-Dan Wang¹, Yi-Qing Cheng¹, Zi-Hong Ye¹, Guang-Fu Liu¹, Xiao-Ping Yu¹

Affiliation

¹ Zhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory of Biometrology and Inspection and Quarantine, College of Life Sciences, China Jiliang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China.

Abstract

The brown planthopper (BPH), Nilaparvata lugens, is one of the most destructive pests of rice. Given the threats posed by insecticide resistance to its control, eco-friendly strategies based on microbial pathogens emerged as a promising biocontrol alternative. In the present study, we isolated a native fungal pathogen against BPH from infected BPH cadavers and preliminarily identified as a strain of Aspergillus fumigatus based on morphological and molecular methods. Laboratory bioassay revealed that this fungal strain was highly virulent to BPH both at nymphal and adult stages, with the median lethal times (LT₅₀) of 7.5 and 5.8 days under high conidial concentration of 1 × 10⁹ conidia mL^-1. A genome-wide view of gene expressions in BPH against fungal attack was analyzed by transcriptomic sequencing and consequently a large number of differentially expressed genes that mainly involved in host immune defense and cell detoxification were found. RNAi-mediated knockdown of an upregulated gene encoding a serine protease (NlSPN) could cause a significant decrease in BPH survival. Combination of dsRNA injection and fungal infection showed an additive effect on BPH mortality, which provided clues to develop new pest management strategies against BPH.

Keywords: Aspergillus fumigatus; biocontrol; brown planthopper; fungal pathogen; transcriptomic sequencing.

Grants and funding

This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant nos. 31972347 and U21A20223), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Provincial Universities of Zhejiang (grant no. 2022YW82), and the Leading Talents in Science and Technology Innovation of Ten Thousand Talents Program in Zhejiang Province (grant no. 2019R52018).