Whiteflies at the intersection of polyphagy and insecticide resistance

Authors: PERIER, JERMAINE - University Of Georgia; RILEY, DAVID - University Of Georgia; CHAMPANGE, DONALD - University Of Georgia; Simmons, Alvin

Submitted to: Insects
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 3/29/2022
Publication Date: 4/28/2022
Citation: Perier, J.D., Riley, D.G., Champange, D.E., Simmons, A.M. 2022. Whiteflies at the intersection of polyphagy and insecticide resistance. Insects. https://doi.org/10.1093/aesa/saac008.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/aesa/saac008

Interpretive Summary: Whiteflies are a major pest problem in many crops, including vegetables, because of their feeding damage and because of the many plant diseases that they transmit to plants. Whiteflies have the ability to overcome chemical host plant resistance and insecticides; additionally, plant type can affect the response of whiteflies to insecticides. In this paper, we document possible interactions between the whitefly Bemisia tabaci, the potential plant chemicals associated with its host plants, and the main chemical insecticides used to control this pest. This information provides a framework for the biological processes associated with host plant selection that can impact insecticide resistance management for this important pest species. Understanding the biology of natural and synthetic chemical selection can lead to the development of sustainable whitefly management for growers.

Technical Abstract: The sweetpotato whitefly, Bemisia tabaci (Gennadius), is one of the more notorious polyphagous insect pests of agricultural cropping systems in the world today. Like all sternorrhyncha insects, whiteflies have piercing/sucking mouthparts and feed on sap from vascular plants through a proboscis. Thus, if this insect is able to overcome the physical barriers of the plant to the proboscis reaching the vascular bundle (for whiteflies this is almost exclusively in the leaf), the main remaining barrier to nutrition uptake and utilization are phytochemicals that exhibit some degree of toxicity to the insect. Bemisia tabaci has been reported to feed on over 1,000 plant species representing an enormous variety of phytochemicals to which whiteflies are potentially exposed. Historically, B. tabaci populations associated with particular plant hosts from particular parts of the world have frequently been diagnosed as biologically distinct biotypes or cryptic species, suggesting that population selection results from these factors. Whiteflies are R-strategists that use polyphagy to their reproductive advantage with biotype selection as a temporal and/or spatial consequence. Biotypes or cryptic species of whiteflies have also been observed to vary in their response to insecticides. Additionally, host plants have been shown to alter the response of a single whitefly biotype to insecticides. Herein, we document possible interactions between the highly polyphagous B. tabaci, the potential phytochemicals associated with its large plant host range, and the main chemical insecticides used to control this pest. Our goal is to provide a framework for the biological processes of chemical response and population selection that can impact insecticide resistance management for this important pest species.