Identification and life history of aphids associated with chili pepper crops in southwestern Colombia

Summary Emission of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in plants is triggered by several biotic and abiotic factors, such as nutrient deficiency, environmental stress, and pathogenic attacks. For instance, plants suffering from limited or excessive nitrogen (N) supply may experience internal stress which can ultimately lower their stability and immunity making them susceptible to infection and infestation. In this study, VOCs from Capsicum annuum var. longum (Solanaceae) exposed to nitrogen (1.8 g/L, 4.5 g/L, and 9 g/L urea) were extracted using a 100 μm Solid Phase Microextraction (SPME) fiber coated with polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS). Using Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS), extracted VOCs from N-treated plants were identified as Butanoic acid, 3-hexenyl ester, (E)-; Butanoic acid, hexyl ester; Hexanoic acid, 3-hexenyl ester, (Z)-; Hexanoic acid, 4-hexen-1-yl ester; cis-3-Hexenyl cis-3-hexenoate and 4-Pentenoic acid 2-methyl-, hexyl ester. Among these volatiles, butanoic acid, 3-hexenyl ester showed the most distinctive peak from the N-treated plants in comparison with the untreated. In addition, the Green Leaf Volatiles (GLV) 3-Hexenal; 2-Hexenal; 3-Hexen-1-ol, (Z)-; 2-Hexen-1-ol, (E) and 1-Hexanol were also detected from the N-treated plants. The identification of plant volatiles provides useful information that can be used in agricultural practices and plant phenotyping.

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Rapid Identification of Aphid Species by Headspace GC-MS and Discriminant Analysis

Alotaibi

Alsufyani

M’sakni

et al. 2023

Insects

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Aphids are a ubiquitous group of pests in agriculture that cause serious losses. For sustainable aphid identification, it is necessary to develop a precise and fast aphid identification tool. A new simple chemotaxonomy approach to rapidly identify aphids was implemented. The method was calibrated in comparison to the established phylogenetic analysis. For chemotaxonomic analysis, aphids were crushed, their headspace compounds were collected through closed-loop stripping (CLS) and analysed using gas chromatography—mass spectrometry (GC-MS). GC-MS data were then subjected to a discriminant analysis using CAP12.exe software, which identified key biomarkers that distinguish aphid species. A dichotomous key taking into account the presence and absence of a set of species-specific biomarkers was derived from the discriminant analysis which enabled rapid and reliable identification of aphid species. As the method overcomes the limits of morphological identification, it works with aphids at all life stages and in both genders. Thus, our method enables entomologists to assign aphids to growth stages and identify the life history of the investigated aphids, i.e., the food plant(s) they fed on. Our experiments clearly showed that the method could be used as a software to automatically identify aphids.

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Identification and life history of aphids associated with chili pepper crops in southwestern Colombia

Cited by 4 publications

References 42 publications

Biodiversity and ecology of viruses in Capsicum species

Biodiversity and ecology of viruses in Capsicum species

Volatile organic compound profiling of Capsicum annuum var. longum grown under different concentrations of nitrogen

Rapid Identification of Aphid Species by Headspace GC-MS and Discriminant Analysis

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