Background: Herbivorous insects are one of the main biological threats to crops. One such group of insects, stink bugs, do not eat large amounts of tissue when feeding on soybean, but are damaging to the quality of the seed yield as they feed on green developing seeds leading to poorly marketable harvests. In addition to causing physical damage during sucking-feeding activities, the insects can also transmit microbial pathogens, leading to even greater yield loss. Conducting surveys of the insect intestinal microbiome can help identify possible pathogens, as well as detail what healthy stink bug digestive systems have in common.Methods: We used the conserved V4 region of the 16S rRNA gene to characterize the bacterial microbiome of the red-banded stink bug Piezodorus guildinii collected in Brazil and the United States, as well as the neotropical brown stink bug Euschistus heros collected in Brazil.Results: After quality filtering of the data, 192 samples were kept for analyses: 117 samples from P. guildinii covering three sites in Brazil and four sites in the United States, and 75 samples for E. heros covering 10 sites in Brazil. The most interesting observations were that the diversity and abundance of some bacterial families were different in the different ecoregions of Brazil and the United States.Conclusion: Some families, such as Acetobacteraceae, Bacillaceae, Moraxellaceae, Enterobacteriaceae, and Rhodocyclaceae, may be related to the better adaptation in some localities in providing nutrients, break down cellulose, detoxify phytochemicals, and degrade organic compounds, which makes it difficult to control these species.

The goal of this study was to identify the effect of four sweet sorghum hybrids exudates on germination and seedling development of test plants. Two bioassays were carried out to check the allelopathic exudate potential of the sweet sorghum hybrids CVSW 81198, CVSW 80007, CVSW 80147 and XBSW 82158 in test plants. In the first bioassay, were evaluated the germinability and seedling development of four test plants (lettuce, I. quamoclit, D. nuda and onion) submitted to the four sweet sorghum exudates. The wheat coleoptile length and the coleoptile length inhibition/ stimulation percentage by the exudate treatments were evaluated in the second bioassay. The solutions containing root exudate, from the four sweet sorghum hybrids, did not alter the germinability and seedling development of the test plants, neither the coleoptiles wheat length.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the weed populations of sweet sorghum hybrid CVSW 81198 and its interference capacity in increasing periods with and without weeding. Two experiments were carried out, one during the summer and another during the autumn in the municipality of Jaboticabal, São Paulo state, Brazil. For each experiment, two treatment groups were established: one consisting of increasing periods without weeding and another of increasing periods with weeding. Periods were 0, 4, 7, 14, 21, 28, 35, 42 and 56 days after emergence (DAE) in the summer experiment and 0, 4, 7, 14, 21, 28, 35, 42, 49, 56, 63 and 100 DAE in the autumn experiment. Phytosociological studies of the weed community were carried out in each treatment, with emphasis on the importance index of each weed population. Under the experimental conditions, Amaranthus spp. and Alternanthera tenella were the most important species in the weed community of sweet sorghum grown during summer and autumn, respectively. With the natural infestation of the weed community, sorghum hybrid CVSW 81198 did not suffer interference in crop development and stem productivity even without weeding throughout the crop cycle.

Background: Herbaceous insects are one of the main biological threats to crops. One such group of insects, stink bugs, do not eat large amounts of tissue when feeding on soybean, but are extremely damaging to the quality of the seed yield as they feed directly on green developing seeds leading to poorly marketable harvests. In addition to causing physical damage to the seed during feeding, the insects can also transmit microbial pathogens, leading to even greater yield loss. Conducting surveys of the insect intestinal microbiome can help identify possible pathogens, as well as detail what healthy stink bug digestive systems have in common.Methods: We used the conserved V4 515-806 region of the 16S rRNA gene to characterize the bacterial microbiome of the red-banded stink bug Piezodorus guildinii collected in Brazil and the United States, as well as the neotropical brown stink bug Euschistus heros collected in Brazil.Results: After quality filtering of the data, 192 samples were kept for analyses: 117 samples from P. guildinii covering three sites in Brazil and four sites in the US, and 75 samples for E. heros covering 10 sites in Brazil. The most interesting observations were that the diversity and abundance of some bacterial families were different in the different ecoregions of Brazil and the United States.Conclusions: Some families may be related to the better adaptation in some localities in provide nutrients, break down cellulose, detoxify phytochemicals, and degrade organic compounds, which makes it difficult to control these species.

Background: Herbaceous insects are one of the main biological threats to crops. One such group of insects, stink bugs, do not eat large amounts of tissue when feeding on soybean, but are extremely damaging to the quality of the seed yield as they feed directly on green developing seeds leading to poorly marketable harvests. In addition to causing physical damage to the seed during feeding, the insects can also transmit microbial pathogens, leading to even greater yield loss. Conducting surveys of the insect intestinal microbiome can help identify possible pathogens, as well as detail what healthy stink bug digestive systems have in common. Methods: We used the conserved V4 515-806 region of the 16S rRNA gene to characterize the bacterial microbiome of the red-banded stink bug Piezodorus guildinii collected in Brazil and the United States, as well as the neotropical brown stink bug Euschistus heros collected in Brazil. Results: After quality filtering of the data, 192 samples were kept for analyses: 117 samples from P. guildinii covering three sites in Brazil and four sites in the US, and 75 samples for E. heros covering 10 sites in Brazil. The most interesting observations were that the diversity and abundance of some bacterial families were different in the different ecoregions of Brazil and the United States. Conclusions: Some families may be related to the better adaptation in some localities in provide nutrients, break down cellulose, detoxify phytochemicals, and degrade organic compounds, which makes it difficult to control these species.