Four housekeeping genes named Lbbeta-Actin1, Lbbeta-Actin2, Lbalpha-Tubulin, and LbGapdh were cloned from Liposcelis bostrychophila using the combined techniques of reverse transcriptase-PCR (RT-PCR) with rapid amplification of cDNA ends (RACE). The GenBank accession numbers were FJ196622, FJ447483, FJ595242, and FJ595241, respectively. The full-length cDNA of Lbbeta-Actin1 was a 1,772 bp sequence with an open reading frame (ORF) encoded 376 amino acids, while Lbbeta-Actin2 was 1,350 bp in length containing an ORF encoded 376 amino acids. Furthermore, the 1,565 bp cDNA of Lbalpha-Tubulin had an ORF of 1,350 bp encoding 450 amino acids. And LbGapdh possessed an ORF of 333 amino acids. Sequences analysis and phylogenetic trees generated from the nucleotide sequences of their coding regions revealed a relationship that was closer to other insects than to mammals. The four genes together with 18S rRNA were quantified for transcription stability in L. bostrychophila, and the geNorm software ranked from the most to least were Lbbeta-Actin1 > LbGapdh > Lbalpha-Tubulin > Lbbeta-Actin2 > Lb18S rRNA for deltamethrin induction, while ranked Lbbeta-Actin1 > Lbalpha-Tubulin > Lbbeta-Actin2 > LbGapdh > Lb18S rRNA for the different developmental stages.

The development, survival, and reproduction of Liposcelis decolor (Pearman) (Psocoptera: Liposcelididae), an important insect pest of infested stored products, were evaluated at eight constant temperatures (20–37.5°C). Female L. decolor had four nymphal stadia, whereas males only had three nymphal stadia. Between 20 and 37.5°C, the female developmental period from egg to adult varied from 46.2 d at 20°C to 16.1 d at 35°C, and the male developmental period from egg to adult varied from 41.8 d at 20°C to 13.6 d at 35°C. Based on a nonlinear model, the lower temperature developmental thresholds of female from egg, first through fourth stadia, and combined immature stages were estimated at 12.22, 16.08, 10.93, 8.88, 12.64, and 13.02°C, the upper temperature thresholds were 42.11, 39.44, 41.27, 40.92, 39.20, and 40.52°C, respectively, whereas the lower temperature thresholds of males ranged from 11.68 to 15.86°C, and the upper temperature thresholds ranged from 40.19 to 42.04°C. The survival rate from egg to adult was 57.3% at 32.5°C, 38.4 at 20°C, and 19% at 37.5°C, respectively. After emergence, the adult had a preoviposition period that ranged from 6.8 d at 20°C to 2.3 d at 35°C. L. decolor produced the most eggs (130.4) at 32.5°C and the fewest (24.7) at 37.5°C. The population reared at 32.5°C had the highest intrinsic rate of increase (0.0609) compared with the populations reared at seven other constant temperatures. The populations reared at 35 and 37.5°C had type III survivorship pattern, whereas populations reared at other temperatures had type I survivorship curve as determined by a Weibull frequency distribution. The optimal range of temperature for L. decolor population growth was 27.5–35°C.

Dietary shifts can alter the relative availability of different nutrients and are therefore associated with metabolic adaptation in animals. The Coccinellidae (ladybirds) exhibits three major types of feeding habits and provides a useful model to study the effects of dietary changes on the evolution of mitogenomes, which encode proteins directly involved in energy metabolism. Here, mitogenomes of three coccinellid species were newly sequenced. These data were combined with other ten previously sequenced coccinellid mitogenomes to explore the relationship between mitogenome evolution and diets. Our results indicate that mitogenomic data can be effectively used to resolve phylogenetic relationships of Coccinellidae. Strong codon usage bias in coccinellid mitogenomes was predominantly determined by nucleotide composition. The 13 mitochondrial protein-coding genes (PCGs) globally evolved under negative constraints, with some PCGs showing a stronger purifying selection. Six PCGs (nad3, nad4L, and nad5 from Complex I; cox1 and cox3 from Complex IV; and atp6 from Complex V) displayed signs of positive selection. Of these, adaptive changes in cox3 were potentially associated with metabolic differences resulting from dietary shifts in Coccinellidae. Our results provide insights into the adaptive evolution of coccinellid mitogenomes in response to both dietary shifts and other life history traits. K E Y W O R D S diet evolution, mitochondrial DNA, molecular phylogeny, negative selection, positive selection | 1043 YUAN et Al.

Abstract:Shen F., Wu Q., Su A., Tang P., Shao X., Liu B. (2016): Detection of adulteration in freshly squeezed orange juice by electronic nose and infrared spectroscopy. Czech J. Food Sci., 34: 224-232.The use of electronic nose and attenuated total reflectance-Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR) as rapid tools for detection of orange juice adulteration has been preliminarily investigated and compared. Freshly squeezed orange juices were tentatively adulterated with 100% concentrated orange juices at levels ranging from 0% to 30% (v/v). Then the E-nose response signals and FTIR spectra collected from samples were subjected to multivariate analysis by principal component analysis (PCA) and linear discriminant analysis (LDA). PCA indicated that authentic juices and adulterated ones could be approximately separated. For the classification of samples with different adulteration levels, the overall accuracy obtained by LDA in prediction was 91.7 and 87.5% for E-nose and ATR-FTIR, respectively. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) results verified that there existed an obvious holistic difference in flavour characteristics between fresh squeezed and concentrated juices. These results demonstrated that both E-nose and FTIR might be used as rapid screening techniques for the detection of this type of juice adulteration.

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