Jekyll or Hyde? The genome (and more) of Nesidiocoris tenuis, a zoophytophagous predatory bug that is both a biological control agent and a pest

Abstract

Nesidiocoris tenuis (Reuter) is an efficient predatory biological control agent used throughout the Mediterranean Basin in tomato crops but regarded as a pest in northern European countries. From the family Miridae, it is an economically important insect yet very little is known in terms of genetic information and no genomic or transcriptomic studies have been published. Here, we use a linked‐read sequencing strategy on a single female N. tenuis. From this, we assembled the 355 Mbp genome and delivered an ab initio, homology‐based and evidence‐based annotation. Along the way, the bacterial “contamination” was removed from the assembly. In addition, bacterial lateral gene transfer (LGT) candidates were detected in the N. tenuis genome. The complete gene set is composed of 24 688 genes; the associated proteins were compared to other hemipterans (Cimex lectularis, Halyomorpha halys and Acyrthosiphon pisum). We visualized the genome using various cytogenetic techniques, such as karyotyping, CGH and GISH, indicating a karyotype of 2n = 32. Additional analyses include the localization of 18S rDNA and unique satellite probes as well as pooled sequencing to assess nucleotide diversity and neutrality of the commercial population. This is one of the first mirid genomes to be released and the first of a mirid biological control agent.

Large-scale comparative analysis of cytogenetic markers across Lepidoptera

“…High-molecular-weight gDNA of the studied species was extracted by standard phenol–chloroform 106 or by cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) 107 extraction. Three pairs of restriction enzymes with no restriction sites within the target sequences were selected (Supplementary Table S7 ) and digestion of gDNA was carried out overnight at 37 °C.…”

The Jekyll and Hyde case of Nesidiocoris tenuis (Reuter) in the management of Bemisia tabaci (Gennadius) on tomato plants under greenhouse conditions

“…Nesidiocoris tenuis is both a bene cial natural enemy and a pest too, a foe and a friend, or as annotated by Ferguson et al (2020), a Jekyll and Hyde. In Japan, N. tenuis has been effectively integrated into the management of several greenhouse pests such as white ies and thrips on tomato plants (Nakano et al 2016;Yano et al 2020).…”

A conserved role of the duplicated Masculinizer gene in sex determination of the Mediterranean flour moth, Ephestia kuehniella

“…DNA was extracted from single female and male pupae using CTAB DNA extraction as described elsewhere [ 52 ]. Concentrations were measured on a Qubit 3.0 Fluorometer using the dsDNA BR Assay Kit (Invitrogen, Carlsbad, CA), and approximately 4 μg DNA per sample was used for DNA digestion reactions.…”

“…To assess the splicing structure and genome organization of EkMasc and EkMascB, we sequenced the male genome of E. kuehniella using Oxford Nanopore technology. DNA was extracted from 5 male larvae using cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) DNA extraction as described elsewhere [52] and sequenced on the Nanopore PromethION by Novogene (HK) Co., Ltd. (Hong Kong, China). The sequencing yielded 16.2 Gb of data equivalent to ca.…”