Although Conogethes punctiferalis and Conogethes pinicolalis have reported on morphology and molecular identification, the molecular biology differences between the two species in different diets are still unknown. In this work, we investigated the difference in the biological process of the two species by the methods of transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics, and bioinformatics. The results showed that the expression of 74,611 mRNA in the transcriptome, 391 proteins in the proteome, and 218 metabolites in the metabolome had been significantly changed between the two species, and the KEGG results showed the data were mainly closely related to metabolism and redox. Moreover, based on integrating system-omics data, we found that the α-amylase and CYP6AE76 gene have mutations between the two species. Different sequence analysis results may differ significantly in their exact substrate preference and product profile, which indirectly leads to the different detoxification or metabolism ability, and the gene expression of relevant was also confirmed by the qPCR and enzyme activity test. These findings in the two species and integrated networks provide beneficial information for further exploring the molecular mechanism of polyphagous and oligophagous.

The GOBP2 protein has a unique function in the yellow peach moth, Conogethes punctiferalis. Several general odorant binding proteins (GOBPs) have been identified in various lepidopteran species, but the functional difference between GOBP1 and GOBP2 in recognition of host plant odorants is still unknown. The functions of GOBP1 and GOBP2 in the yellow peach moth were evaluated in this study using the CRISPR-Cas9 system. The results revealed the importance of GOBP2 in the olfaction mechanism in the yellow peach moth. The GOBP1 knocked out larvae’s perception towards feeding decreased but did not reach a significant level, while knocking out the GOBP2 and GOBP1/2 genes resulted in huge differences. On the other hand, electroantennograms (EAG) and wind tunnel tests showed that the GOBP2 knocked out adult’s sensitivity to odorants decreased more than GOBP1 knocked out individuals. The STRING database text mining results grabbed our attention in the protein-protein interaction studies. In this research, we firstly proved the existence of physical interactions between GOBPs and chemosensory proteins (CSP) through the surface plasmon resonance (SPR) and isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC) methods. Interestingly, the GOBP1 and GOBP2 could not interact with each other, but they can interact with CSPs. The interaction result indicates that GOBP2 could physically interact with CSP15, CSP5, and OBP17, whereas GOBP1 could bind only with CSP5 and CSP10, and the association constant (ka) is also more substantial than GOBP1. These results strongly suggest the importance of GOBP2 function in the perception of host plants odorants in the yellow peach moth.

Microbial communities are essential for soil health, but fungicide application can have major effects on their structure, and it is difficult to predict whether non-target pathogens in the soil will cause major crop damage. Using collected soil with a history of poor corn (Zea mays) seedling emergence, we demonstrate that the poor emergence of corn seedlings from seeds coated with the fungicide tebuconazole is primarily due to infection of surviving soil pathogens, particularly Pythium complexes that are not targeted by fungicide tebuconazole. We determined that the bases for the increased infection by non-target species of Pythium were: 1) the selective fungicidal activity of seed-applied tebuconazole showed a low level of control against Pythium species but had a significant effect on soil fungi, thereby releasing Pythium spp. from competition with other soil microorganisms; 2) the growth of the natural enemies in soil, Trichoderma spp., was strongly inhibited by tebuconazole; and 3) low temperature was the key factor of triggering fatal injury of Pythium pathogens to corn seeds. Taken together, the non-target effects of tebuconazole are likely not significant under favorable plant growing conditions, but are considerable as a result of low temperature stress.