Diaphorina citri (Kuwayama) is one of the primary vectors of Citrus Huanglongbing (HLB), which poses a danger to the long-term development of the citrus industry. In this work, the spatiotemporal expression processes of the genes encoding vitellogenin-3-like (Vg4) and vitellogenin receptor (VgR) in D. citri females during the 1- to 30-day developmental stage of ovarian development and oviposition behavior were investigated. Vg4 and VgR gene expression largely supports oocyte maturation in D. citri females at the 1- to 15-day developmental stage. During the 15- to 30-day developmental stage, the expression of the Vg4 and VgR genes predominantly promotes the progression of oviposition behavior. Comparisons of ovarian development and oviposition behavior revealed that in the 15- to 30-day developmental stage, female egg production accounted for 75–85% of total oviposition, while mature oocyte formation occurred largely after the 15th day of ovarian development. The findings of this study provide fresh theoretical support and insights into the use of RNA interference (RNAi) technology to reduce the damage caused by D. citri populations.
Wang et al. (Fri,) studied this question.