Genomics of Vector Insect and Virus Lab led by Prof. Feng Cui and Ecological genomics Lab led by Prof. Le Kang from the Institute of Zoology (IOZ) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) successfully decipher the secret of plant viruses regulating insects' wing morphology. The study entitled “A plant virus manipulates the long-winged morph of insect vectors” was published online in PNAS on January 9, 2024.

Insects have been identified as a major vector for transmitting approximately 80% of plant viruses, which pose a severe threat to global crop yield and quality. The extent of devastation caused by plant viruses on crops largely depends on the wing dimorphism of the insect vectors, as it determines their ability to spread viruses over long distances and cause large-scale epidemics. Despite the fact that plant viruses affect the wing dimorphism of insect vectors, there is limited understanding of whether viruses directly manipulate wing plasticity and the molecular mechanisms involved.

Small brown planthopper (SBPH) is one of the most important short-distance migratory pests of rice and capable of efficiently transmitting multiple rice viruses such as rice stripe virus (RSV), which causes rice stripe disease, one of the most notorious rice diseases in temperate and subtropical regions. Since 2000, with the increase in population density and migration of SBPH, RSV has re-emerged and caused severe outbreaks in East Asia, resulting in significant damage to rice production and even complete crop failure in some areas. This has drawn the attention of numerous plant virologists and made RSV one of the most extensively studied plant viruses in the past 20 years.

In this study, Jinting Yu, Wan Zhao, Le Kang, Feng Cui, and colleagues found that RSV uniquely induces a long-winged morph in male SBPH. They identified a gene, called Encounter, as a key player in the RSV-induced long-winged morph. Encounter is a planthopper-specific gene and highly expressed in the testis. RSV upregulates the expression of Encounter at the key period for wing morph differentiation through a virus-derived small RNA. Encounter relies on the insulin/insulin-like growth factor signaling pathway to regulate the development of wing morphs. Interventions designed to disrupt this mechanism could help control viral disease epidemics on agricultural production.

Paper link:

https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2315341121

Contact:

Cui Feng

Institute of Zoology Chinese Academy of Sciences

Tel: 86-64807218

E-mail: cuif@ioz.ac.cn

Web: http://english.ioz.cas.cn/