Laodelphax striatellus is a notorious sap-feeding insect that also serves as a vector of rice stripe virus (RSV) and is responsible for a significant decline in rice yield. Pesticide application remains a crucial strategy for controlling insect pests. In recent years, the utilization of biopesticides has gained attention due to their eco-friendliness and suitability for controlling insect pests and pathogens in agriculture. The present study aimed Figureto evaluate the potential efficacy of a microbial pesticide, decoyinine (DCY), as a seed priming agent in rice against SBPH’s biology, feeding behavior, and RSV transmission ability in the laboratory. Here, we revealed that the body weight of females and males and honeydew extraction of RSV-virulent SBPH were (22.50%, 25.0%, and 23.25%, respectively) significantly lower than non-virulent SBPH. Meanwhile, the fecundity of RSV-virulent SBPH females was significantly higher (8.24%) than non-virulent SBPH. However, nymphal survival and RSV transmission (horizontal and vertical) were found to be non-significantly affected by DCY application. Furthermore, DCY-primed rice seedlings significantly prolonged the time period and frequency of the electrical penetration graph (EPG) feeding waveforms (np, N2, and N3), and also reduced the time period of the waveform (N4-b) for both RSV-virulent and non-virulent SBPH strains with reduced RSV inoculation. The recent study provides new insights for DCY application in rice against SBPH by reducing fecundity, body weight, and honeydew contents, which might contribute to modern integrated pest management.

Rice stripe virus (RSV) is transmitted by the small brown planthopper (SBPH), Laodelphax striatellus, in a circulative-propagative manner. Multiple studies have proved that RSV can manipulate vector insects to facilitate its transmission and can alter the gene expressions in viruliferous SBPH. However, to the best of our knowledge, nobody has investigated the gene expressions in the head of SBPH after RSV acquisition. In this study, to investigate the genes and gene functions regulated by RSV infection in the head of SBPH, we used RNA sequencing to compare the transcriptional profiles between SBPH head samples that acquired RSV or not. Compared with the non-viruliferous SBPH, a total of 336 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified in the head samples of viruliferous SBPH groups, including 186 up-regulated and 150 down-regulated genes. Here, we focused on DEGs that may be involved in RSV replication or transmission, primarily genes associated with the nervous system, cytochrome P450s, sugar metabolism, the olfactory system, and cuticular process, as well as genes that have been previously reported to affect virus transmission in insect vectors including ubiquitin-protein ligase (E3), ecdysone response gene (E74A), and vitellogenin receptor (VgR). Finally, we verified the accuracy of the transcriptome sequencing results using qRT-PCR by selecting 16 DEGs. Our results can contribute to the understanding of the effects of RSV infection on gene regulation in the head of SBPH and provide insight into the control of plant virus transmission and insect vectors.