Original paper
Thermal stress-induced changes in life-history traits and adaptation of Bactrocera dorsalis to heat and cold waves
Murtaza, Ghulam; Wang, Yuning; Ullah, Farman; Deschepper, Pablo; Zhao, Zihua; Li, Zhihong
Entomologia Generalis Volume 46 Number 1 (2026), p. 161 - 171
published: Mar 31, 2026
published online: Jan 15, 2026
manuscript accepted: Oct 15, 2025
final revised version received: Jul 8, 2025
manuscript revision requested: Apr 16, 2025
manuscript received: Oct 24, 2024
ArtNo. ESP146004601015, Price: 29.00 €
Abstract
Climate change increased the prevalence of heat waves, impacting insect metabolism, reproduction, development, and survival. The present study aimed to investigate the effect of heat and cold stress on the life cycle of Bactrocera dorsalis, and to identify the potential genes under thermal stress tolerance via transcriptome analysis and RNAi. Results suggest a prolonged pupal developmental duration under cold treatment (CT) and heat treatment (HT) compared to the control respectively. The mean longevity of adult was maximum in both HT and CT groups than control, but the maximum longevity was observed in CT group. The female fecundity of B. dorsalis was significantly higher in the CT compared with that of the HT and control (843.63, 753.27, and 669.27 eggs). After stress treatments, there was an increase in intrinsic and finite rates of increase in demographic parameters. After the knockdown of heat shock protein 68 (Hsp68) and insulin like-receptor (InR) using RNA interference, different body parts exhibited a divergent pattern of decreased expression levels of both genes. The expression of Hsp68 in all body parts decreased significantly after knockdown in both control and CT condition. But the lowest expression was observed in the gut (0.7-fold) as compared to dsGFP (3.35-fold) and other body parts. The InR expression was significantly reduced in all body parts at HT, while the lowest expression was observed in the head (0.9-fold). The survival rate was significantly lower under thermal stress and control conditions after gene knockdown. Taken together, our findings point towards tissue-specific and temperature-dependent effects of Hsp68 and InR expression on survival rates in B. dorsalis, implying the importance of stress and metabolic genes in designing RNAi-based pest control strategies.
Keywords
Climate change • insect physiology • fitness • developmental plasticity • stress-responsive genes • tissue-specific expression • RNAi • oriental fruit fly