Is there a better way to kill a spotted lanternfly?
While stomping them out seems to be the most prevalent method, researchers now believe they are getting closer to finding a more sophisticated way to dispatch the hated invasive species.
Researchers have sequenced and assembled the lanternfly’s genome after capturing a bug in Berks County last fall that provided the genetic materials needed for the sequencing, according to a new study published in the journal GigaScience.
The genome will give researchers more tools to fight the lanternfly, said Julie Urban, a research associate professor at Penn State. In the short term, it will allow researchers to track spotted lanternfly populations and learn more about their movement. In the longer term, it could help them develop gene silencers or other lanternfly-specific methods of control.
“It’s super exciting,” Urban said.
Researchers have been searching for weapons against the bug since it was discovered in Berks County in 2014. Little is known about the biology of the bugs, which pose a threat to vineyards, lumber and other agricultural products in Pennsylvania.
Researchers could also try to interfere with bacterial endosymbionts, or what amounts to internal organs made of bacteria, in the lanternflies. Two endosymbionts’ genomes were also sequenced as part of the project.
Urban, whose research is focused on this area, said the plant sap the bugs feed on is nutrient poor. The endosymbionts turn the plant sap into amino acids that sustain the lanternflies, she said. Knowing more about them ? and how they’re transferred from a parent into lanternfly eggs ? could hold a key to defeating the insect.
“Since lanternflies are the only thing out there with these bacterial symbionts, if you’re just blocking those symbionts, it won’t have an impact on other critters out there,” she said.
She said she’s been doing dozens and dozens of dissections to try to figure out how the bug’s ovaries develop and how the endosymbionts are passed to the next generation.
The genome was sequenced and assembled using new technology that allowed researchers to simply take the DNA from a single insect found in nature. Typically, researchers would have to inbreed an insect over many generations before they could complete the sequencing.
For this study, Penn State and U.S. Department of Agriculture researchers partnered with Pacific Biosciences, a sequencing instrument manufacturer, to sequence the lanternfly’s DNA. Pacific Biosciences provided access to a platform that generates seven to eight times more data than previous sequencing platforms, allowing scientists to finish the job more quickly ? and cheaply ? than usual.
“Previously, to generate this amount of data would have required many runs, with a much higher cost and longer turnaround time,” Scott Geib, a research entomologist for the USDA Agricultural Research Service, said in an email.
Researchers also didn’t need to breed the lanternfly in a lab, something that would have been a setback, as they’ve been unable to successfully rear lanternflies through an entire life cycle.
Geib wrote that the genome can be used to help identify the lanternfly’s origins, as well as potentially track its movement and spread. He wrote it could also help researchers to develop better lures and biopesticides because they’ll know more about the bug’s molecular mechanisms.
“Having the genome for this pest opens the door to a better understanding of its biology and behavior, and makes coming up with potential control methods much more likely to happen, such as developing a lure for a trap through understanding the insect’s olfactory genes, or exploring avenues such as gene editing or RNAi,” Geib said in a USDA news item.
Morning Call reporter Michelle Merlin can be reached at 610-820-6533 or at mmerlin@mcall.com.
