Elevated Carbon Dioxide and Nitrogen Impact Wheat and Its Aphid Pest

The rise in atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) generally increases wheat biomass and grain yield but decreases its nutritional value. This, in turn, can alter the metabolic rates, development, and performance of insect pests feeding on the crop. However, it is unclear how elevated CO2 (eCO2) and nitrogen (N) input affect insect pest biology through changes in wheat growth and tissue N content. We investigated the effect of three different N application rates (low, medium, and high) and two CO2 levels (ambient and elevated) on wheat growth and quality and the development and performance of the bird cherry-oat aphid, a major cereal pest worldwide, under controlled environmental conditions. We found that eCO2 significantly decreased total aphid fecundity and wheat N content by 22 and 39%, respectively, when compared to ambient CO2 (aCO2). Greater N application significantly increased total aphid fecundity and plant N content but did not offset the effects of eCO2. Our findings provide important information on aphid threats under future CO2 conditions, as the heavy infestation of the bird cherry-oat aphid is detrimental to wheat grain yield and quality

Molecular detection and characterisation of phytoplasma in trigonella foenum-graecum and identification of potential insect vectors in Punjab, Pakistan

Discerning with crop health issues, this study was conducted to detect and identify phytoplasmas and their potential insect vectors in symptomatic Fenugreek (Trigonella foenum-graecum) plants collected from Punjab, Pakistan. The detection of phytoplasma in collected leafhopper species and Fenugreek plants was confirmed by nested PCR amplification of 16SrDNA by employing primer pairs (P1/P7 & R16F2n/R16R2). Our results indicated that all the symptomatic fenugreek plant and specimens of leafhoppers, Orosius albicinctus, Empoasca spp., and Balclutha incisa resulted positive in PCR. Sequencing of amplified DNA products and phylogenetic analysis of our Fenugreek phyllody phytoplasma (Accession number MH398586) showed that the phytoplasma strains detected has maximum identity (100%) with \u2018Candidatus Phytoplasma australasiae\u2019 subgroup 16Sr-II-D (Gen Bank number Y10097. This is the first detection and identification of phytoplasma presence in fenugreek seed plants with putative potential insect vectors in Faisalabad, Punjab, Pakistan