N. K. Krishna Kumar

Pandemics continue to affect the edifice of India’s biosecurity threatening food, nutrition, health, livelihood, biodiversity and ecosystem services. Rapid, largescale movement of people and material in a globalised world, climate change and inadequate surveillance will exacerbate pandemics in the years to come. Despite vaccines, synthetic drugs, a...

Soil health information is still not widely used in decision making in agriculture. One of the reasons is the lack of a simple and effective method for selection of soil health indicators that have direct relevance to management decisions. A framework for soil health indicators selection and developing location-specific management practices that im...

India’s inland water bodies are rich in the aquatic gene pool and it provides various ecosystem services, which include provisioning, regulating, supporting, and spiritual services. The aquatic biodiversity of India comprises 9,456 animal species representing 3145 species from different ecosystem. The inland fisheries contribute significantly to th...

India is rich in agrobiodiversity and considered to be one of the centres of origin of food crops, oilseed crops, horticultural crops, spices and medicinal plants. Biodiversity and agriculture are strongly interrelated, and the country has around 811 cultivated plants and 186 breeds of livestock and poultry. Some of the challenges India is facing i...

Climate change is predicted to increase drought and flooding events in the coming decades, especially in the tropics; we need to understand the short-term responses of plant community and soil microarthropods populations to these extreme events.Yet most of our current knowledge on this comes from manipulative studies in temperate regions. The prese...

Successful multiplication of Scirtothrips dorsalis in the laboratory has never been established so far. S. dorsalis has been noted as major pest in field as well as under protected cultivation, recently this pest developed resistance to well know chemical insecticides. In order to develop a suitable management practices it is very much necessary to...

Morphological identification of thrips using both adult and larvae is challenging due to their tiny size and cryptic behaviour. In this regard molecular identification and diversity of Scirtothrips dorsalis was carried out employing Internal Transcribed Spacer2 (ITS2) sequences. Amplification of ITS2 was very efficient, as there were more copies of...

BACKGROUND RNA interference (RNAi) is a potential tool for functional characterization of genes and also in the management of insect pests. Accumulated literature reveals that the RNAi efficiency varies among insect species and is reported to be less efficient in lepidopteran insects. RESULTS We attempted to enhance RNAi efficiency by concatemeriz...

Thrips tabaci Lindeman is an important polyphagous insect pest species estimated to cause losses of more than U.S. $1 billion worldwide annually. Chemical insecticides are of limited use in the management of T. tabaci due to the thigmokinetic behavior and development of resistance to insecticides. There is an urgent need to find alternative managem...

Cruciferous vegetables are severely damaged by infestation of the diamondback moth, Plutella xylostella (L.) (Lepidoptera: Plutellidae). Successful utilization of RNA interference (RNAi) in insect pest management programs depends on various factors, such as target gene, mode of double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) delivery, frequency of application, and dev...

Abstract High diversity of digestive proteases is considered to be the key factor in the evolution of polyphagy in Helicoverpa armigera. Serine proteases (SPs) contribute ~85% of the dietary protein digestion in H. armigera.We investigated the dynamics of SP regulation in the polyphagous pest, H. armigera using RNA interference (RNAi). HaTry1, an i...

Aphids are important group of vectors of plant viruses, where all three modes of transmission viz. non-persistent, semi-persistent and persistent are observed. In India, exploration of aphid species in vector-virus study was started during 1945 and subsequently, several aphid species have been identified as vectors of many important plant viruses....

A great number of cell lines from hemipteran, lepidopteran, and dipteran insects have been developed and characterized. Using the advent of new techniques and instruments in molecular biology as well as the advancement in biotechnology, the indigenous cell lines might prove useful in the development of alternatives to conventional chemical pesticid...

ABSTRACT Aphids (Hemiptera: Aphidoidea) are distributed worldwide and are in the Sternorrhyncha division of the order Hemiptera. Aphids have distinctive features and significant variability in interesting biological traits. Aphididae comprises approximately 5,000 species distributed worldwide with a rapid diversification rate, which makes reliable...

Abstract Plutella xylostella (L.), Diamondback moth (DBM), is a notorious pest disrupting cruciferous crops across the world. Overuse of chemically synthesized insecticides as well as application of bio-pesticide like Bacillus thuringiensis has gained progressive resistance against them, resulting in DBM management failures. To overcome this, a mor...

Helicoverpa armigera is an important pest infesting a number of crops of high commercial value leading to huge economic losses globally. RNA interference (RNAi) is a potent tool for the control of insect pests and towards this objective, transgenic tomato expressing dsRNA of Juvenile hormone acid methyl transferase (JHAMT) gene of H. armigera was d...

The Grey Weevil, Myllocerus subfasciatus Guerin, is an important emerging pest of quarantine significance in Solanaceae crops including the eggplant, Solanum melongena. Entomopathogenic nematodes (EPNs) have been shown to be a potential source of safe and effective control of M. subfasciatus. In this study, we determined the virulence of seven stra...

The Grey Weevil, Myllocerus subfasciatus Guerin, is an important emerging pest of quarantine significance in Solanaceae crops including the eggplant, Solanum melongena. Entomopathogenic nematodes (EPNs) have been shown to be a potential source of safe and effective control of M. subfasciatus. In this study, we determined the virulence of seven stra...

Bemisia tabaci (Gennadius) is a species complex, affecting wide varieties of crops globally, mainly a dreaded vector of Gemini viruses. It also causes extensive damage as a pest through direct feeding on the phloem sap and impacting crop yield by excreting copious amounts of honeydew. Sugars of honeydew serve as an excellent source for predators an...

RNA interference (RNAi) is a sequence-specific gene silencing mechanism prevalent in various organisms that regulates various processes like growth and development, genome integrity, etc. In this regard, RNAi is brought about by various classes of small RNAs, like siRNA, miRNA, piRNA, including those in insects. RNAi is a promising futuristic pest...

Thrips palmi Karny (Thysanoptera: Thripidae) is the sole vector of Watermelon bud necrosis tospovirus, where the crop loss has been estimated to be around USD 50 million annually. Chemical insecticides are of limited use in the management of T. palmi due to the thigmoki-netic behaviour and development of high levels of resistance to insecticides. T...

Potential targets for the identified known miRNAs with EST orthologs of F. occidentalis. (DOC)

Complete Functional categories of gene ontology classification of the putative target genes for the T. palmi miRNAs against ESTs of F. occidentalis. (DOC)

Potential targets for the identified novel miRNAs with Transcriptome sequences of F. occidentalis. (DOC)

Complete Functional categories of gene ontology classification of the putative target genes for the novel miRNAs against transcriptome sequences of F. occidentalis. (DOC)

Potential targets for the identified known miRNAs with the transcriptomic sequences of F. occidentalis. (DOC)

Complete Functional categories of gene ontology classification of the putative target genes for the known miRNAs against transcriptome sequences of F. occidentalis. (DOC)

Small RNAs (Piwi RNAs) with nucleotide lengths larger than 25 nucleotides obtained from our sequencing data. (DOCX)

The melon aphid, Aphis gossypii Glover (Hemiptera: Aphididae), is a highly polyphagous sap sucking pest on wide varieties of crops including cotton and vegetables. It is a notorious vector of many plant viruses that are persistently and non-persistently transmitted. In nature, aphids are regulated by their natural enemies. However, chemical control...

A survey was conducted in fields of cucumber and watermelon in Bengaluru, India during April, 2014 for determination of the common parasitoids (Hym.: Braconidae, Aphidiinae) attacking melon aphid, Aphis gossypii Glover (Hemi.: Aphididae). Three species of Aphidiinae, including Aphidius platensis Brethes, 1913; Binodoxys acalephae (Marshall, 1896) a...

The melon aphid, Aphis gossypii Glover (Hemiptera: Aphididae) is a cosmopolitan, polyphagous aphid species. It exhibits host-associated genetic structure that results in evolution of biotypes and cryptic species favoring host adaptation and reproductive isolation. The relationship between host preference and genetic variation is not clear in aphids...

The current study involves identification of 10 specimens of Asian citrus psylla infesting citrus in different geographical regions of India through DNA barcoding. Psyllids are phloem feeding insects that cause a serious devastation to citrus. Considering the invasiveness of the pest, it is necessary to identify them rapidly and accurately. The cla...

Insects are the numerous life forms that have captured the attention of human beings since ancient times. In the same context, proper classification and identification of life forms has been a challenge, and a plausible method of classification was established by Carlous Linnaeus, a Swedish botanist who published Systema Naturae in 1758. However, t...

The melon aphid, Aphis gossypii Glover (Hemiptera: Aphididae), is an important cosmopolitan and extremely polyphagous species capable of causing direct and indirect damage to various crops. Insecticide resistance in melon aphids is of particular concern. To determine the basis of resistance, organophosphate (OP)-resistant strains of A. gossypii wer...

Aphis gossypii (Glover) (Hemiptera: Aphididae) is a highly invasive pest that feeds primarily on phloem resulting in severe economic loss to growers. A. gossypii has cosmopolitan distribution with broad host range, polyphenism, parthenogenetic mode of reproduction, vectoring abilities, and host alteration which has profound influence on its managem...

Because of the minute size of thrips, genomic DNA extraction from single specimen is a challenging task. We demonstrated a rapid, simple, efficient and economical procedure to obtain good quality DNA from single adult of chilli thrips. To determine the effectiveness of this method, genomic DNA was checked by nanodrop and agarose gel electrophoresis...

The whitefly Bemisia tabaci (Gennadius) (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae) is an economically important agricultural pest globally that costs growers billions of dollars to control. Given the pest status of B. tabaci and its propensity for invasiveness, a detailed work to resolve the prevalence of B. tabaci genetic groups is warranted. Hence, we analyzed mit...

RNA interference is a sequence-specific gene silencing mechanism mediated by double-stranded RNA (dsRNA), which has been harnessed as a useful tool in devising novel insect pest management strategies for various pests such as melon aphid, Aphis gossypii (Glover). In the current study, we cloned and sequenced juvenile hormone-binding protein (JHBP)...

Overuse of chemical insecticides such as organophosphates, pyrethroids, and endosulfan in managing notorious sap-sucking insect pests such as the melon aphid, Aphis gossypii Glover, resulted in insecticide resistance. To combat the above and bring out the novel pest control strategy, we implemented ribonucleic acid interference (RNAi), a reverse ge...

En enero y febrero de 2015, la polilla del tomate, Tuta absoluta (Meyrick) (Lepidoptera: Gelechiidae), se encontró que habia entrado y estableció en las regiones de Malnad y Hyderabad-Karnataka de Karnataka, India. Hasta donde sabemos, este es el primer registro de Tuta absoluta en estas regiones de la India. La incidencia registrada parece ser rel...

The melon aphid, Aphis gossypii Glover (Hemiptera: Aphididae), is a cosmopolitan polyphagous aphid species that inflicts serious damage to a wide spectrum of crops and has an extraordinary ability to transmit viruses in either a nonpersistent or persistent mode. It tends to specialize on a few host plants species, resulting in parapatric divergence...

Cardamom thrips (Sciothrips cardamomi Ramk.) (Thysanoptera: Thripidae) cause serious economic loss to cardamom, Elettaria cardamomum (L.) Maton (Zingiberaceae). A fungus was isolated from cadavers of cardamom thrips collected during a survey in cardamom plantations of Wayanad District, Kerala, India and identified as Lecanicillium psalliotae (Tresc...

The recent demonstration of the potential of RNAi in pest management has opened a new avenue which will fuel a futuristic approach where application of chemical insecticides will no longer be needed. Identification of suitable target genes and delivery method will usher a new ecofriendly approach that is safer to nontarget organisms including human...

Fruits crops by the virtue of their nutritional qualities have already emerged as a major alternative, cutting short the menacing load on the consumption of traditional monotonous cereal/tuber crop-based diet. Huge microbial diversity has displayed different magnitude of synergism with fruit crops, which played a catalytic role in unlocking the pro...

Studies were conducted to investigate aphid associated ant fauna with special reference to the melon aphid, Aphis gossypii Glover (Hemiptera: Aphididae) on various host plants in South India. Thirteen aphidocolous ant species belonging to 10 genera were collected and identified. These ants were observed to harvest honeydew from A. gossypii colonies...

ABstRAct Accurate and timely identification of invasive insect pests underpins most biological endeav-ors ranging from biodiversity estimation to insect pest management. In this regard, identifica-tion of thrips, an invasive insect pest is important and challenging due to their complex life cycles, parthenogenetic mode of reproduction, sex and colo...

The sweet potato whitefly, Bemisia tabaci (G.) biotype B (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae), is one of the most economically important pest, by being a dreaded vector of Geminiviruses, and also causes direct damage to the crops by sucking phloem sap. Glutathione S-transferase (GST) is a large family of multifunctional enzymes that play pivotal roles in the d...

The mango aphid, Aphis odinae (Toxoptera odinae) (Van der Goot) (Hemiptera: Aphididae), is an occasional, phytophagous sucking pest of mango. These aphids are very often associated with natural enemies and an ecological understanding, especially on insect—crop relationships, is needed in management. This will be manifested in altered sugar and amin...

Reverse-transcription quantitative real-time PCR (RT-qPCR), a sensitive technique is being extensively employed in quantification of gene expression. However this requires normalization with suitable reference gene (RG) which is crucial in minimizing inter sample variations. Information regarding suitable RG is scarce in general and more so in inse...

The melon aphid, Aphis gossypii Glover (Hemiptera: Aphididae) has become a serious pest of wide spectrum of crops and is considered to be a potential vector of numerous plant pathogenic viruses worldwide. This pest exhibits color polymorphism in which dark green, pale green and yellow forms exist within a single colony on the same plant and also on...

The diamondback moth, Plutella xylostella (L.) (Lepidoptera: Yponomeutidae) is a serious pest of crucifers, worldwide, and has developed high levels of resistance to insecticides including Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt). This serious situation requires the identification of non-chemical, alternate, futuristic pest management strategies, which might in...

Summary An aphid parasitoid, Aphelinus basilicus Fatima & Hayat (Aphelinidae: Aphelininae) is described from material collected in Bengaluru, Karnataka for the first time. It was found to parasitize apterous viviparous females of the cotton aphid, Aphis gossypii (Glover) infesting Gossypium hirsutum (Malvaceae), during Jul, 2013. Field data indicat...

Sixteen species of ants collected from Karnataka, India, were sequenced and barcoded for a 658 bp region of the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 gene (cox1). This gene is frequently termed as CO1 in barcoding approach and serves as the core of a global bioidentification marker for insects and other animals. The AT content in DNA of 16 a...

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small noncoding RNAs that regulate gene expression either bymRNAcleavage or by translational repression. They play an important role in the development and physiology of organisms. It is difÞcult to experimentally identify miRNAs and characterize their spatial and temporal expressions in insects or in any organisms. The cotto...

First occurrence of the invasive aphid species, Wahlgreniella nervata (Gillette) (Hemiptera: Aphididae) is reported from material collected in Bengaluru, India. Apterous and alate viviparous females were found feeding on tender shoots, young leaves and flower buds of rose (Rosaceae). The identity of this aphid species is supported by morphometrics...

The cotton bollworm, Helicoverpa armigera is a highly polyphagous pest infesting a number of economically important crops, annually causing enormous crop losses. Management of this pest is challenging over the years due to various factors including development of resistance to wide spectrum of chemical insecticides. RNA interference (RNAi) has trem...

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small, endogenously, non-coding genes that regulate protein production either by mRNA cleavage or by translational repression in eukaryotes and viruses. miRNAs plays a key role in biological processes including growth, development and physiology of an organism. In this study, we employed insilico approaches to identify the mi...

Surveys were conducted between 2010 and 2013 in west coast and east coast belts of India for major sucking pests, Helopeltis spp. in cashew. It reveals that three species viz., H. antonii Signoret, H. bradyi Waterhouse and H. theivora Waterhouse spread over different host plants. H. antonii was noticed as the predominant species and collected from...