Articles

Insect pests pose a threat to crop production because they cause damage to plant tissues, decrease yield, and quickly adapt to host defenses. Plants respond by signaling with hormones, producing secondary metabolites, strengthening cell walls, and other defense mechanisms, and insects respond with salivary effectors, detoxification enzymes, digestive proteins, and regulatory molecules. Dual transcriptomics, also known as dual RNA sequencing, is the study of the gene expression of the crop and the insect at the same feeding interaction. This two-sided approach allows researchers to gain insight into the simultaneous occurrence of plant defense and pest adaptation in real time. Using bioinformatics tools, the mixed RNA data can be split into plant and insect reads, which can be used to identify defense genes, pest vulnerability genes and important molecular pathways. This information can aid in resistant crop breeding, RNA interference control, and more targeted pest management.