Alternative splicing perspective to prey preference of environmentally friendly biological agent Cryptolaemus montrouzieri

Cryptolaemus montrouzieri (Coccinellidae) is widely utilized as biological control agents in modern agriculture. A comprehensive understanding of its food preference can help guide mass rearing and safety management during field application of pest control. Although some studies have paid attentions to the impacts of prey shift on C. montrouzieri, little is known regarding the role of post-transcriptional regulations in its acclimation to unnatural preys.

We performed a genome-wide investigation on alternative splicing dynamics in C. montrouzieri in response to the predation transition from natural prey to unnatural ones. When feeding on undesired diets, 402–764 genes were differentially alternative spliced in C. montrouzieri. It is noteworthy that the majority of these genes (> 87%) were not differentially expressed, and these differentially spliced genes regulated distinct biological processes from differentially expressed genes, such as organ development and morphogenesis, locomotory behavior, and homeostasis processes. These suggested the functionally nonredendant role of alternative splicing in modulating physiological and metabolic responses of C. montrouzieri to the shift to undesired preys. In addition, the individuals feeding on aphids were subject to a lower level of changes in splicing than other alternative diets, which might be because of the similar chemical and microbial compositions. Our study further suggested a putative coupling of alternative splicing and nonsense-mediated decay (AS-NMD), which may play an important role in fine-tuning the protein repertoire of C. montrouzieri, and promoting its acclimation to predation changes.

These findings highlight the key role of alternative splicing in modulating the acclimation of ladybirds to prey shift and provide new genetic clues for the future application of ladybirds in biocontrol.