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Insects and microbes are known to interact in a variety of ways at food facilities, compounding damage. However, little research has explicated how specific common fungal species affect the behavior of the cosmopolitan secondary stored product pest,Lasioderma serricorne. Enhanced knowledge about attraction to microbially-produced volatile organic compounds (MVOCs) may be used to manipulate insect behavior.Aspergillus flavusandFusarium verticillioidesare two common, widespread pre- and postharvest fungi on small cereals that produce aflatoxins and fumonisins, respectively, while directly competing with each other for nutrients. Our goals were to (1) characterize the volatile emissions from grain inoculated byA. flavusorF. verticillioidesderived from the cuticle ofL. serricornecompared to uninoculated and sanitized grain, and (2) understand how MVOCs from each fungal species affects mobility, attraction, and preference byL. serricorne. Headspace collection revealed that theF. verticillioides- andA. flavus-inoculated grain produced significantly different volatiles compared to sanitized grain or the positive control. Changes in MVOC emissions affected close-range foraging during an Ethovision movement assay, with a greater frequency of entering and spending time in a small zone with kernels inoculated withA. flavuscompared to other treatments. In the release-recapture assay, MVOCs were found to be attractive toL. serricorneat longer distances in commercial pitfall traps. There was no preference shown among semiochemical stimuli in a still-air, four-way olfactometer. Overall, our study suggests that MVOCs are important for close- and long-range orientation ofL. serricorneduring foraging, and that MVOCs may have the potential for inclusion in behaviorally-based tactics for this species.

 

The phylum Arthropoda includes species crucial for ecosystem stability, soil health, crop production, and others that present obstacles to crop and animal agriculture. The United States Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service initiated the Ag100Pest Initiative to generate reference genome assemblies of arthropods that are (or may become) pests to agricultural production and global food security. We describe the project goals, process, status, and future. The first three years of the project were focused on species selection, specimen collection, and the construction of lab and bioinformatics pipelines for the efficient production of assemblies at scale. Contig-level assemblies of 47 species are presented, all of which were generated from single specimens. Lessons learned and optimizations leading to the current pipeline are discussed. The project name implies a target of 100 species, but the efficiencies gained during the project have supported an expansion of the original goal and a total of 158 species are currently in the pipeline. We anticipate that the processes described in the paper will help other arthropod research groups or other consortia considering genome assembly at scale. 

The Fusarium solani species complex (FSSC) is a clade of environmentally ubiquitous fungi that includes plant, animal, and insect associates. Here, we report the draft genome sequence of the undescribed species FSSC 6 (isolate MYA-4552), housed in the gut of the wood-boring cerambycid beetle Anoplophora glabripennis .