Pest Management Science (2020) 76, 2415-2422

Yayun Zuo, Yuxin Xue, Wenjie Lu, Huanhuan Ma, Maohua Chen, Yidong Wu, Yihua Yang and Zhaonong Hu (2020)
Functional validation of nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR) α6 as a target of spinosyns in Spodoptera exigua utilizing the CRISPR/Cas9 system
Pest Management Science 76 (7), 2415-2422
Abstract:
BACKGROUND
The beet armyworm, Spodoptera exigua , is a serious agricultural pest that is primarily controlled using chemical insecticides. Recently, resistance to the insecticide spinosad has been described in S. exigua field populations. To date, there has been no functional evidence proving the involvement of the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR) α6 mutation in spinosad resistance in S. exigua .
RESULTS
In this study, using the CRISPR/Cas9 genome-editing system, a homozygous strain (Seα6-KO) with approximately 1760-bp deletion within Seα6 in S. exigua causing a premature truncation of Seα6 was successfully constructed. Insecticide bioassays showed that Seα6-KO exhibited 373-fold higher resistance to spinosad and 850-fold higher resistance to spinetoram compared to WH-S strain with the same genetic background but showed no significant change in susceptibility to emamectin benzoate and chlorantraniliprole. Genetic analysis revealed that Seα6-KO is inherited as an incompletely recessive trait.
CONCLUSION
The results clearly demonstrated the functional role of Seα6 in resistance to spinosyn insecticides and provide an example of using genome editing to verify a target premature truncation associated with resistance.
(The abstract is excluded from the Creative Commons licence and has been copied with permission by the publisher.)
Link to article at publishers website
Database assignments for author(s): Mao-Hua Chen, Yihua Yang

Research topic(s) for pests/diseases/weeds:
pesticide resistance of pest

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Pest and/or beneficial records:

Beneficial	Pest/Disease/Weed	Crop/Product	Country	Quarant.
	Spodoptera exigua