Developing a Feeding Assay System for Evaluating the Insecticidal Effect of Phytochemicals on Helicoverpa armigera

Summary

This protocol describes the obligate feeding assay to evaluate the potentially toxic effect of a phytochemical on the lepidopteran insect larvae. This is a highly scalable insect bioassay, easy to optimize the sublethal and lethal dose, deterrent activity, and physiological effect. This could be used for screening eco-friendly insecticides.

Abstract

Helicoverpa armigera, a lepidopteran insect, is a polyphagous pest with a worldwide distribution. This herbivorous insect is a threat to plants and agricultural productivity. In response, plants produce several phytochemicals that negatively impact the insect's growth and survival. This protocol demonstrates an obligate feeding assay method to evaluate the effect of a phytochemical (quercetin) on insect growth, development, and survival. Under controlled conditions, the neonates were maintained until the second instar on a pre-defined artificial diet. These second-instar larvae were allowed to feed on a control and quercetin-containing artificial diet for 10 days. The insects' body weight, developmental stage, frass weight, and mortality were recorded on alternate days. The change in body weight, the difference in feeding pattern, and developmental phenotypes were evaluated throughout the assay time. The described obligatory feeding assay simulates a natural mode of ingestion and can be scaled up to a large number of insects. It permits one to analyze phytochemicals' effect on the growth dynamics, developmental transition, and overall fitness of H. armigera. Furthermore, this setup can also be utilized to evaluate alterations in nutritional parameters and digestive physiology processes. This article provides a detailed methodology for feeding assay systems, which may have applications in toxicological studies, insecticidal molecule screening, and understanding chemical effects in plant-insect interactions.

Introduction

The biotic factors that affect crop productivity are mainly pathogenic agents and pests. Several insect pests cause 15% to 35% of agricultural crop loss and affect economic sustainability practices¹. Insects belonging to the orders Coleoptera, Hemiptera, and Lepidoptera are the major orders of devastating pests. The highly adaptive nature of the environment has benefited lepidopterans in evolving several survival mechanisms. Amongst lepidopteran insects, Helicoverpa armigera (Cotton bollworm) can feed on around 180 different crops and cause significant damage to their reproductive tissues². Worldwide, H. arm....

Protocol

H. armigera larvae were acquired from ICAR-National Bureau of Agricultural Insect Resources (NBAIR), Bangalore, India. A total of 21 second instar larvae were used for the present study.

1. Preparation of chickpea-based artificial diet

NOTE: A list of ingredients required for preparing an artificial diet is mentioned in Table 1.

1. Weigh all the fractions separately in a beaker, as listed in Table 1

Discussion

Laboratory bioassays are useful to predict outcomes and produce comparative toxicity data on several compounds in a short period at a reasonable cost. The feeding bioassay helps to interpret the interactions between insect-insecticide and insect-plant-insecticides. It is an efficient method for measuring the toxicity of a variety of substances that significantly simplifies the process of establishing the lethal dose 50 (LD₅₀), lethal concentration 50 (LC₅₀), or any other lethal concentration or dose.......

Materials

Name	Company	Catalog Number	Comments
Agar Agar	Himedia	RM666	Solidifying agent
Ascorbic acid	Himedia	CMS1014	Vitamin C source
Bengal Gram	NA	NA	Protein and carbohydrate source
Casein	Sigma	C-5890	Protein source
Cholesterol	Sisco Research Laboratories	34811	Fatty acid source
Choline Chloride	Himedia	GRM6824	Ammonium salt
DMSO	Sigma	67-68-5	Solvent
GraphPad Prism v8.0			https://www.graphpad.com/guides/prism/latest/user-guide/using_choosing_an_analysis.htm
Methyl Paraben	Himedia	GRM1291	Antifungal agent
Multivitamin capsule	GalaxoSmithKline	NA	Vitamin source
Quercetin	Sigma	Q4951-10G	Phytochemical
Sorbic Acid	Himedia	M1880	Antimicrobail agent
Streptomycin	Himedia	CMS220	Antibiotic
Vitamin E capsule	Nukind Healthcare	NA	Vitamin E source
Yeast Extract	Himedia	RM027	Amino acid source