Background: To date, four thrips vectors have been reported to transmit five different tospoviruses in India. Their identification at an early stage is crucial in formulating appropriate pest management strategies. Since morphometric key-based thrips identification based on the adult stage is time-consuming, there is a need to develop diagnostic tools which are rapid, accurate, and independent of developmental stages. Here, we report a multiplex PCR assay to identify four major thrips vectors viz. Thrips palmi, T. tabaci, Scirtothrips dorsalis, and Frankliniella schultzei present in India. Results: Cytochrome oxidase subunit III and internal transcribed spacer region 2 were utilized to design speciesspecific primers. Of 38 pairs of primers tested, primer pairs AG35F-AG36R, AG47F-AG48R, AG87F-AG88R, and AG79F-AG80R amplified 568 bp, 713 bp, 388 bp, and 200 bp products from the DNA templates of T. palmi, S. dorsalis, T. tabaci, and F. schultzei, respectively at same PCR conditions. The specificity of the primer pairs was validated with a large number of known specimens and no cross-reactivity was observed with other thrips species. The multiplex PCR assay with a cocktail of all the four primer pairs detected four thrips vectors efficiently and could discriminate all of them concurrently in a single reaction. Conclusion: The multiplex PCR reported in this study could identify the major thrips vectors reported in India. The assay will be useful in ascertaining distribution profile of major thrips vectors, disease epidemiology, screening large samples, and quarantine.

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To meet the food demand of the ever-expanding world population there is a need for research and development for protecting crops against insect pests and pathogens. The way could be exploring the plant’s own defense mechanism by manipulating the expression of their endogenous defense proteins or introducing an insect control gene derived from another plants. The wild and resistant gene pools are the potential source of beneficial gene that offers considerable resistance to the insect pests. Insecticidal proteins viz., lectins, a-amylase inhibitor, urease, protease inhibitor, arcelins and cyclotides present in the seeds of pulses, especially in wild and resistance germplasms have been suggested to play a major role in insect resistance which are considered as most promising weapons that confer resistance against insects and which will be eco-friendly alternative to synthetic pesticides. Thus, it is very important to characterize these proteins and their encoding genes so that they can be used as viable means of producing pest resistant transgenic crops. This review deals with the biochemical features and mechanism of action of legume insecticidal proteins involved in defense mechanism against insect pests.

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