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Tracking the movement of Nesidiocoris tenuis among banker plants and crops in a tomato greenhouse by DNA markers of host plants

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Abstract

The zoophytophagous predator, Nesidiocoris tenuis (Reuter) (Hemiptera: Miridae), is an important biological control agent. To maintain this insect, several non-crop host plants are used as banker plants in greenhouse crop systems. To optimize the efficiency of the predator-banker plant interaction, it is necessary to investigate how individual predators move between banker plants and crops. However, the movement is difficult to quantify under field conditions. Therefore, we investigated the movement of N. tenuis between tomato plants (Solanum lycopersicum L., Solanales: Solanaceae) and three banker plants (Cleome hassleriana Chod., Brassicales: Cleomaceae; Sesamum indicum L., Lamiales: Pedaliaceae; and Verbena × hybrida Voss, Lamiales: Verbenaceae) in a greenhouse by conducting PCR using plant-species-specific primers. Laboratory analysis results showed that our molecular method could detect N. tenuis activity within a relatively short time (≤ 24 h). In addition, N. tenuis predation on a pest species was unlikely to result in false detection of plant DNA in the pest (suggesting that N. tenuis had been on the plants). Multiple plant species were detected in adult insects collected from the greenhouse plants, indicating that N. tenuis frequently moved across the mentioned plant species. The movement patterns of N. tenuis between plant species varied substantially based on the plant species from which they were collected, which suggested each of the plant species had different functions for N. tenuis. Our findings revealed that planting multiple host plants would stabilize the N. tenuis population in biological control programs.

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Data availability

The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Dr. T. Tezuka and S. Kohara (Agri-Soken Inc.) for providing Nesidiocoris tenuis colonies, and Dr. K. Kubota (NARO), K. Nakai (Kagawa Prefectural Agricultural Experiment Station), and D. Nakajima for providing arthropod or plant samples. We thank Dr. T. Mitsunaga (NARO) for advice on statistical analyses. This work was supported by Cabinet Office, Government of Japan, Cross-Ministerial Strategic Innovation Promotion Program (SIP), “Technologies for creating next-generation agriculture, forestry, and fisheries” (funding agency: Bio-oriented Technology Research Advancement Institution, NARO).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Shizuoka Prefectural Research Institute of Agriculture and Forestry, 678-1 Tomigaoka, Iwata, Shizuoka, 438-0803, Japan

    Ryohei Nakano

  2. Laboratory of Applied Entomology, University of Miyazaki, 1-1 Gakuenkibanadai-Nishi, Miyazaki, 889-2192, Japan

    Ryohei Nakano

  3. Central Region Agricultural Research Center, NARO, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-8666, Japan

    Norihide Hinomoto

  4. Laboratory of Ecological Information, Graduate School of Agriculture, Kyoto University, Kyoto, 606-8502, Japan

    Norihide Hinomoto

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  1. Ryohei Nakano
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  2. Norihide Hinomoto
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Both authors conceived and designed the research and conducted the experiments. RN analyzed the data and wrote the first draft of the manuscript. NH commented on previous versions of the manuscript. Both authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Ryohei Nakano.

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This article does not contain any studies with human participants or animals (vertebrates) performed by either of the authors.

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Nakano, R., Hinomoto, N. Tracking the movement of Nesidiocoris tenuis among banker plants and crops in a tomato greenhouse by DNA markers of host plants. BioControl 66, 659–671 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10526-021-10085-8

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