Improved draft reference genome for the Glassy-winged Sharpshooter (Homalodisca vitripennis), a vector for Pierce's disease.

Homalodisca vitripennis (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae), known as the glassy-winged sharpshooter, is a xylem feeding leafhopper and an important agricultural pest as a vector of Xylella fastidiosa, which causes Pierce's disease in grapes and a variety of other scorch diseases. The current H. vitripennis reference genome from the Baylor College of Medicine's i5k pilot project is a 1.4-Gb assembly with 110,000 scaffolds, which still has significant gaps making identification of genes difficult. To improve on this effort, we used a combination of Oxford Nanopore long-read sequencing technology combined with Illumina sequencing reads to generate a better assembly and first-pass annotation of the whole genome sequence of a wild-caught Californian (Tulare County) individual of H. vitripennis. The improved reference genome assembly for H. vitripennis is 1.93-Gb in length (21,254 scaffolds, N50 = 650 Mb, BUSCO completeness = 94.3%), with 33.06% of the genome masked as repetitive. In total, 108,762 gene models were predicted including 98,296 protein-coding genes and 10,466 tRNA genes. As an additional community resource, we identified 27 orthologous candidate genes of interest for future experimental work including phenotypic marker genes like white. Furthermore, as part of the assembly process, we generated four endosymbiont metagenome-assembled genomes, including a high-quality near complete 1.7-Mb Wolbachia sp. genome (1 scaffold, CheckM completeness = 99.4%). The improved genome assembly and annotation for H. vitripennis, curated set of candidate genes, and endosymbiont MAGs will be invaluable resources for future research of H. vitripennis.

Insecticide resistance in California populations of the glassy-winged sharpshooter Homalodisca vitripennis.

BACKGROUND: The glassy-winged sharpshooter, Homalodisca vitripennis (Germar), is a primary vector of Pierce's disease of grapes in California. Systemic imidacloprid treatments have been the mainstay of area-wide treatment programs that were established in the Central Valley (Kern and Tulare Counties) and Southern California (Riverside County) during the 1990s to combat the pest. The programs helped to suppress populations on citrus, a major sharpshooter host, to levels that significantly reduced migration into adjacent vineyards. However, beginning in 2012, there has been a resurgence of glassy-winged sharpshooter populations in Kern and Tulare counties, and hitherto successful treatment strategies have not been as effective. This study investigated the possibility that insecticide resistance was a contributing factor to the population resurgence. RESULTS: Topical application bioassays detected high levels of resistance to imidacloprid in Kern and Tulare populations, and lower levels of resistance (perhaps due to cross-resistance) to the foliar neonicotinoid acetamiprid (20-fold), the pyrethroid fenpropathrin (7.4-fold), and the butenolide flupyradifurone (4-fold). Samples of glassy-winged sharpshooters from citrus groves under organic management also exhibited high levels of imidacloprid resistance. CONCLUSION: The long-term use of imidacloprid has selected for resistance in glassy-winged sharpshooters. The most resistant populations also exhibited resistance to the foliar neonicotinoid acetamiprid, the pyrethroid fenpropathrin, and the butenolide flupyradifurone. High levels of imidacloprid resistance in insects sampled from organic groves indicate that resistant insects are migrating from nearby conventional groves, which could compromise the control of sharpshooters in organic systems with insecticides affected by cross-resistance. © 2021 Society of Chemical Industry.