Pine wilt is a serious and fatal disease in pine forests. It is caused by the pine wood nematode, Bursaphelenchus xylophilus, transmitted by the Japanese saw beetle Monochamus alternatus. Control of this disease depen...Pine wilt is a serious and fatal disease in pine forests. It is caused by the pine wood nematode, Bursaphelenchus xylophilus, transmitted by the Japanese saw beetle Monochamus alternatus. Control of this disease depends on reducing its vector population. The public is demanding environmentally friendly control methods and biological control has become increasingly seen as an impor-tant, safe and effective approach. Through our investigations both in the field and by breeding in our laboratory, a new predator of M. alternatus, Tetrigus lewisi （Coleoptera： Elateridae）, was found for the first time in China. Given our continuous observations, we are assured that the predatory behavior of the elater can be separated into four parts, i.e., foraging and sensing, killing, eating and excre-tion. They always took several hours to eat the preys that have been killed momentarily. We finally found that most of the elaters preferably attacked in the stomach and abdomen of the larva of M. alternatus.展开更多
The pine sawyer beetle, Monochamus alternatus, is regarded as a notorious for- est pest in Asia, vectoring an invasive pathogenic nematode, Bursaphelenchus xylophilus, which is known to cause pine wilt disease. Howeve...The pine sawyer beetle, Monochamus alternatus, is regarded as a notorious for- est pest in Asia, vectoring an invasive pathogenic nematode, Bursaphelenchus xylophilus, which is known to cause pine wilt disease. However, little sequence information is available for this vector beetle. This hampered the research on its immune system. Based on the transcriptome of M. alternatus, we have identified and characterized 194 immunity-related genes in M. alternatus, and compared them with homologues molecules from other species known to exhibit immune responses against invading microbes. The lower number of puta- tive immunity-related genes in M. alternatus were attributed to fewer C-type lectin, serine protease （SP） and anti-microbial peptide （AMP） genes. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that M. alternatus had a unique recognition gene, galectin3, orthologues of which were not identified in Tribolium castaneum, Drosophila melanogastor, Anopheles gambiae and Apis mellifera. This suggested a lineage-specific gene evolution for coleopteran insects. Our study provides the comprehensive sequence resources of the immunity-related genes ofM. alternatus, presenting valuable information for better understanding of the molecular mechanism of innate immunity processes in M. alternatus against B. xylophilus.展开更多
文摘Pine wilt is a serious and fatal disease in pine forests. It is caused by the pine wood nematode, Bursaphelenchus xylophilus, transmitted by the Japanese saw beetle Monochamus alternatus. Control of this disease depends on reducing its vector population. The public is demanding environmentally friendly control methods and biological control has become increasingly seen as an impor-tant, safe and effective approach. Through our investigations both in the field and by breeding in our laboratory, a new predator of M. alternatus, Tetrigus lewisi （Coleoptera： Elateridae）, was found for the first time in China. Given our continuous observations, we are assured that the predatory behavior of the elater can be separated into four parts, i.e., foraging and sensing, killing, eating and excre-tion. They always took several hours to eat the preys that have been killed momentarily. We finally found that most of the elaters preferably attacked in the stomach and abdomen of the larva of M. alternatus.
文摘The pine sawyer beetle, Monochamus alternatus, is regarded as a notorious for- est pest in Asia, vectoring an invasive pathogenic nematode, Bursaphelenchus xylophilus, which is known to cause pine wilt disease. However, little sequence information is available for this vector beetle. This hampered the research on its immune system. Based on the transcriptome of M. alternatus, we have identified and characterized 194 immunity-related genes in M. alternatus, and compared them with homologues molecules from other species known to exhibit immune responses against invading microbes. The lower number of puta- tive immunity-related genes in M. alternatus were attributed to fewer C-type lectin, serine protease （SP） and anti-microbial peptide （AMP） genes. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that M. alternatus had a unique recognition gene, galectin3, orthologues of which were not identified in Tribolium castaneum, Drosophila melanogastor, Anopheles gambiae and Apis mellifera. This suggested a lineage-specific gene evolution for coleopteran insects. Our study provides the comprehensive sequence resources of the immunity-related genes ofM. alternatus, presenting valuable information for better understanding of the molecular mechanism of innate immunity processes in M. alternatus against B. xylophilus.
