Host plant adaptation of Spodoptera frugiperda CYPome

Abstract

Spodoptera frugiperda (J. E. Smith), or the fall armyworm, is a migratory polyphagous pest of maize, sorghum, forage grasses for livestock, turf grasses, rice, cotton, and peanuts in eastern and central North America and South America. Fall armyworm is composed of two sympatric and morphologically identical strains that are defined by their host plant preferences. One strain was identified from populations feeding on corn, sorghum, and other large grasses (corn strain), and the other strain was identified from populations feeding on rice, Bermuda grass, and other small grasses (rice strain).
The genome of each strain was sequenced. We will present our work on the annotation of the cytochrome P450 (CYP) gene family in these two strains. CYPs have monooxygenase activity and represent one of the largest genes families in living organisms. CYPs are able to catalyze at least 60 chemically distinct reactions and are specialized in the metabolism of endogenous substrates such as steroid hormone or lipids as well as in the metabolism or detoxification of xenobiotics such as natural products, drugs, pesticides,etc..
We found a new CYP family in our CYPomes as well as recent blooming events (insertion/deletion) that might be associated with insect adaptation to its host plant.