Comparative Metabolomics Reveals Phosphine-Induced Metabolic Disruptions in (Risso).

Phosphine (PH) is a fumigant often used to control insect pests, but its metabolic effects on insect physiology remain unclear. In this study, a comparative metabolomics analysis was performed to elucidate the physiological metabolic pathways affected by PH exposure in , and significant changes in the metabolic profiles induced by PH treatment were identified. Principal component analysis and correlation analysis revealed different metabolic changes, and a total of 45 metabolites were identified and mapped to metabolic pathways using the KEGG database.

Recovery of the mitochondrial COI barcode region in diverse Hexapoda through tRNA-based primers.

Background: DNA barcoding uses a 650 bp segment of the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase I (COI) gene as the basis for an identification system for members of the animal kingdom and some other groups of eukaryotes. PCR amplification of the barcode region is a key step in the analytical chain, but it sometimes fails because of a lack of homology between the standard primer sets and target DNA.

Results: Two forward PCR primers were developed following analysis of all known arthropod mitochondrial genome arrangements and sequence alignment of the tRNA-W gene which was usually located within 200 bp upstream of the COI gene.

Molecular identification of mealybugs (Hemiptera: Pseudococcidae) found on Korean pears.

Mealybugs are under a strict regulation at foreign trades of agricultural products because they are one of the most economically damaging groups of insects on food crops and ornamental plants. However, the absence of morphological characteristics enabling the discrimination of early life stages often cause a significant delay or rejection of a shipment when infested fruit is discovered, causing significant economic loss. A polymerase chain reaction-based method for species identification was developed for six mealybug species known to infest Korean pears including two regulated insects, Planococcus kraunhiae (Kuwana) and Crisicoccus matsumotoi (Siraiwa).