Application of Sustainable Natural Bioesources in Crop Protection: Insight into a Podophyllotoxin-Derived Botanical Pesticide for Regulating Insect Vestigial Wing of Mythimna separata Walker

In continuation of our program for integrated application of podophyllotoxin (isolated from Juniperus Sabina) as a forest sustainable natural resource in crop protection, an in-depth study on the mechanism of action of podophyllotoxin derivatives as botanical pesticides was necessary. On the basis of our previous results, here the transcriptional response of vestigial wing in Mythimna separata Walker (a crop-threatening insect pest) to a podophyllotoxin-derived insecticidal agent was analyzed by using RNA-Seq. This is the first study to explore the vestigial wing behavior of insect pests caused by xenobiotics. These results suggested that this agent could suppress wing-related development pathways, such as the insulin signaling pathway, juvenile hormone biosynthesis, wing disc morphogenesis, wing disc development, and imaginal disc-derived wing morphogenesis; it markedly repressed wing development-related genes of insulin receptor, insulin-like precursor polypeptide D, juvenile hormone, engrailed-like, vestigial-like, serrate homologue, notch, and distalless homebox, and activated wing development-related genes of indian hedgehog and spalt major-like, validated by qRT-PCR Our results will pave the way for a future application of this sustainable forest natural bioresource as a crop protection agent to control insect pests damage in agriculture.