Simultaneous identification of multiple thrips species (Thysanoptera: Thripidae) from sticky traps using DNA metabarcoding.
Zeira E, Martoni F, Piper AM, Eow L, Gambley C, Rodoni BC, Constable FE.
Pest Monitoring
Thrips are tiny enough to hitch a ride on any plant you bring home from a nursery, and the viruses they carry can wipe out an entire greenhouse or vegetable plot before you even know what hit you — this new tool lets growers catch exactly which pest species are present, faster and more accurately than ever before.
Thrips are tiny insects that damage crops and spread plant viruses, but they're incredibly hard to tell apart just by looking at them under a microscope. Researchers built a system that reads DNA from the sticky traps growers already use to catch insects, identifying which thrips species are present in one go without needing an expert to examine each bug individually. The method is so sensitive it can detect a single species even when it makes up less than 1% of the insects on a trap — and it still works on samples stuck to traps for up to two years.
Key Findings
The DNA metabarcoding method detected individual thrips species at a relative abundance as low as 0.1% within mixed insect samples.
Up to nine thrips species were simultaneously identified from a single sticky trap, including samples up to two years old.
A curated reference database of 70 specimens revealed errors in public DNA databases, correcting misidentified thrips sequences that would otherwise produce wrong pest identifications.
chevron_right Technical Summary
Scientists developed a DNA-based method to identify multiple thrips pest species at once from sticky traps, achieving detection down to 0.1% abundance and identifying up to nine species from a single sample — even from traps stored up to two years.
Abstract Preview
More than 130 thrips (Insecta, Thysanoptera) species are significant pests of agricultural crops, 16 of which are known vectors of economically important plant viruses from the Orthotospovirus genu...
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