• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.57-61
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• 2009

The invasive pest Brontispa longissima(Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae), native to Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, has extended its distribution to Australia, Asia and Pacific islands and caused serious leaf damages of the coconut palm Cocos nuciferain the invaded regions. Although biological control using parasitic wasps has successfully reduced population density and leaf damage levels, this pest and its natural enemies have not been efficiently producedin conventional methods using young leaves of C. nucifera. In the present study, we examined suitability of plants easily available in Thailand and Japan for mass rearing of this pest to develop effective mass rearing system of this pest. Mature, green leaves of the palms were also suitable for immature development and adult reproduction of this pest. Since mature leaves of C. nucifera are more abundant and less contaminated with fungus than the unopened leaf buds, mature leaves could be a promising plant diet for mass rearing of B. longissima. Ornamental palms such as Hyophorbe lagenicaulis and Washingtonia filifera were also suitable for immature development and reproduction of B. longissima. Away from palms, the cattail Typha spp. can sustain immature development and adult reproduction of B. longissima. In the area where C. nucifera is rare or not available, W. filifera or Typha spp. would be good food plants for mass rearing of this pest.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.28 no.5
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• pp.796-808
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• 2018

The intracellular bacterium Wolbachia pipientis is widespread in arthropods. Recently, possibilities of novel Wolbachia-mediated hosts, their distribution, and natural rate have been anticipated, and the coconut leaf beetle Brontispa longissima (Gestro) (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae), which has garnered attention as a serious pest of palms, was subjected to this interrogation. By adopting Wolbachia surface protein (wsp) and multilocus sequence type (MLST) genotypic systems, we determined the Wolbachia infection density within host developmental stages, body parts, and tissues, and the results revealed that all the tested samples of B. longissima were infected with the same Wolbachia strain (wLog), suggesting complete vertical transmission. The MLST profile elucidated two new alleles (ftsZ-234 and coxA-266) that define a new sequence type (ST-483), which indicates the particular genotypic association of B. longissima and Wolbachia. The quantitative real-time PCR analysis revealed a higher infection density in the eggs and adult stage, followed by the abdomen and reproductive tissues, respectively. However, no significant differences were observed in the infection density between sexes. Moreover, the wsp and concatenated MLST alignment analysis of this study with other known Wolbachia-mediated arthropods revealed similar clustering with distinct monophyletic supergroup B. This is the first comprehensive report on the prevalence, infection dynamics, and phylogeny of the Wolbachia endosymbiont in B. longissima, which demonstrated that Wolbachia is ubiquitous across all developmental stages and distributed in the entire body of B. longissima. Understanding the Wolbachia infection dynamics would provide useful insight to build a framework for future investigations, understand its impacts on host physiology, and exploit it as a potential biocontrol agent.