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Inadequate molecular identification protocols for invasive pests threaten biosecurity

C. Doorenweerd,Michael San Jose,L. Leblanc,Daniel Rubinoff

Published 2022 in Systematic Entomology

ABSTRACT

The economic and ecological consequences of new insect invasions can be devastating and far-reaching. For example, the economic impact of the Oriental fruit fly (Bactrocera dorsalis [Hendel]) outbreak and subsequent eradication efforts in Florida (United States) in 2015 are estimated to have cost 41.2 million US dollars from direct costs, grower’s losses, and missed industry output from quarantine measures respectively, on top of hundreds of lost jobs (Steck et al., 2019). In Japan, the costs of eradicating several invasions of melon fly (Zeugodacus cucurbitae [Coquillett]) and Oriental fruit fly are estimated to have cost over 200 million US dollars between 1950 and 1998 (Kiritani, 1998). The potential losses caused by spongy moth (Lymantria dispar [Linnaeus]) and nun moth (Lymantria monacha [Linnaeus]) invasions in the United States between 1990 and 2003 are estimated to be 28–46 billion US dollars (Cock et al., 2003). The growing biosecurity risk from invasive pest insects is a wellestablished and inevitable consequence of globalization (Suckling et al., 2019). Luckily, the tools to combat these invasions are expanding and new genomic technologies are facilitating the development and implementation of better diagnostic markers and protocols. Thus, molecular species identification can play an especially important role in the prevention or rapid recognition of new pest invasions. Speedy recognition of a new invasion is crucial for eradication of the pest before establishment. Eradication is often expensive but is almost always orders of magnitude cheaper than suffering the long-term economic consequences to agriculture and trade of an established pest (Cantrell et al., 2002; Liebhold et al., 2016). Molecular species identification offers two significant advantages over conventional morphology-based identifications: (1) it does not rely on limited available taxonomic expertise for each identification, and (2) it can be applied to any insect life stage, sex, body part, or sometimes even traces left in the environment (eDNA) (e.g., Lopez-Vaamonde et al., 2012; Mlynarek et al., 2017; Rees et al., 2014). Therefore, molecular identification methods have the potential to become a critical part of biosecurity protocols around the world. However, although some molecular diagnostics methods have been around for decades, many require substantial improvement before they can be reliably applied in the prevention or early recognition of pest insect invasions. We break down the necessary steps for the development of robust molecular diagnostic tools into four major areas: (1) establishing accurate reference taxonomy, (2) facilitating multi-marker approaches, (3) ensuring sufficient intraspecific sampling of reference material, and (4) developing identification reliability metrics.

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