The beet armyworm, Spodoptera exigua (Hübner), is a serious pest worldwide that causes significant losses in crops. Unfortunately, genetic resources for the beet armyworm is extremely scarce. To improve these resources we sequenced the transcriptome of S. exigua representing all stages including eggs, 1(st) to 5(th) instar larvae, pupae, male and female adults using the Illumina Solexa platform...

Bacillus thuringiensis is the most effective microbial control agent for controlling numerous species from different insect orders. The main threat for the long term use of B. thuringiensis in pest control is the ability of insects to develop resistance. Thus, the identification of insect genes involved in conferring resistance is of paramount importance. A colony of Spodoptera exigua (Lepidopt...

Lepidoptera comprise some of the most devastating herbivorous pest insects worldwide. One of the most promising novel pest control strategies is exploiting the RNA interference (RNAi) mechanism to target essential genes for knockdown and incite toxic effects in the target species without harming other organisms in the ecosystem. However, many insects are refractory to oral RNAi, often due to ra...

Cytochrome P450 monooxygenases (CYPs), as an enzyme superfamily, is widely distributed in organisms and plays a vital function in the metabolism of exogenous and endogenous compounds by interacting with its obligatory redox partner, CYP reductase (CPR). A novel CYP gene (CYP9A11) and CPR gene from the agricultural pest insect Spodoptera exigua were cloned and characterized. The complete cDNA se...

Microbial entomopathogen-based bioinsecticides are recognized as alternatives to synthetic pesticides. Insects defend themselves against microbial pathogens by innate mechanisms, including increased phenoloxidase (PO) activity, but its relationship with microbial bioinsecticides efficacy is little known. This study evaluated the differences in PO activity at different developmental stages of th...

Quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) is a reliable and reproducible technique for measuring and evaluating changes in gene expression. The most common method for analyzing qRT-PCR data is to normalize mRNA levels of target genes to internal reference genes. Evaluating and selecting stable reference genes on a case-by-case basis is critical. The present study aimed to facilitate gene expression ...

The role of microRNA bantam, one of the most abundant microRNAs in Sf9 cells, was studied for its role in baculovirus infection in vitro and in vivo. The expression level of bantam was increased after AcMNPV infection in Sf9 cells and in Spodoptera litura larvae. In Sf9 cells, application of bantam inhibitor or mimic altered the expression of many virus genes, the most affected gene being lef8,...

One of the agricultural commodities that has a high selling value and consumption level is shallot (Alium ascalonicum). However, productivity shallots known to be susceptible plant-destroying organisms, such as caterpillar (Spodoptera exigua). Currently, most farmers control S. exigua using synthetic insecticides. Synthetic insecticides are poisonous use for long time period will cause resistan...

Spodoptera exigua Hübner (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) is considered a polyphagous pest distributed worldwide with wide range of hosts, and also serious plague for vegetables ornamentals. The objective this study was to explore the occurrence entomopathogenic fungi in agricultural soils from Mexico evaluate its virulence effect on life cycle S. exigua. Selected isolates (HEB1 γ01) were used perform ...