At some point between 35 million and 80 million years ago, a whitefly landed on a leaf and started sucking its sweet sap. That fateful meal provided more than sugar. Somehow, a gene from the plant wound its way into the whitefly’s genome, a new study suggests, and may have helped its ancestors become one of the most notorious agricultural pests today.
The gene helps plants neutralize and safely store certain toxic molecules they use to deter herbivores.
This plant-to-insect gene swap is the second ever documented, and the clearest example of an insect effectively commandeering the genetic toolkit of their “prey” to use it against them.
“Ten or 20 years ago no one thought that this kind of gene transfer was possible,” says Roy Kirsch, a chemical ecologist at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology in Jena, Germany, who wasn’t involved in the study. “There are so many barriers a gene must overcome to move from a plant to an insect, but this study clearly shows that it happened, and that the gene provides a benefit to whiteflies.”
The gene helps plants neutralize and safely store certain toxic molecules they use to deter herbivores.
This plant-to-insect gene swap is the second ever documented, and the clearest example of an insect effectively commandeering the genetic toolkit of their “prey” to use it against them.
“Ten or 20 years ago no one thought that this kind of gene transfer was possible,” says Roy Kirsch, a chemical ecologist at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology in Jena, Germany, who wasn’t involved in the study. “There are so many barriers a gene must overcome to move from a plant to an insect, but this study clearly shows that it happened, and that the gene provides a benefit to whiteflies.”
