GENO_PEST - GENOmics studies of the noctuid PEST genus Spodoptera

Funded by CEMEB LABEX and led by Dr. Gael Kergoat.
The pest genus Spodoptera recently came into the spotlights due to the lightning quick invasion of the fall armyworm (FAW) Spodoptera frugiperda, which is now causing billions of damage annually in the Eastern hemisphere. Outside this species, the genus counts 30 other species (of which half are pests) that present very variable levels of host-breadth, ranging from strictly monophagous to highly polyphagous. Here, our project aims at using a comparative genomics framework to test whether the inferred rapid shifts of host-ranges are associated with key changes in terms of genomic architecture. To do so, we will generate new genomes for several key species, for which no genomic data are available so far. The resulting wealth of genomics will also allow us to reconstruct the evolutionary history of the genus with phylogenomics approaches, and the reassessment of the species status of several pairs of taxa (including in some case subspecies or strains) with a novel metric based on whole genome comparisons. Thanks to this macroevolutionary context, we will be able to of diet-associated changes that are associated with the transition between specialist and generalist species (including pest species).


Figure from Kergoat et al. 2021