DOI: 10.5061/dryad.6wwpzgn5w
title: Data from: UDP-glycosyltransferases act as key determinants of host plant range in generalist and specialist Spodoptera species

description: Phytophagous insects have evolved sophisticated detoxification systems to
 overcome the anti-herbivore chemical defenses produced by many plants.
 However, how these biotransformation systems differ in generalist and
 specialist insect species and their role in determining insect host plant
 range remains an open question. Here we show that UDP-glycosyltransferases
 (UGTs) play a key role in determining the host range of insect species
 within the Spodoptera genus. Comparative genomic analyses of Spodoptera
 species that differ in host plant breadth identified a relatively
 conserved number of UGT genes in generalist species but high levels of UGT
 gene pseudogenization in the specialist Spodoptera picta. CRISPR-Cas9
 knockouts of the three main UGT gene clusters of Spodoptera frugiperda
 revealed that UGT33 genes play an important role in allowing this species
 to utilize the poaceous plants maize, wheat and rice, while UGT40 genes
 facilitate utilization of cotton. Further functional analyses in vivo and
 in vitro identified the UGT SfUGT33F32 as the key mechanism that allows
 generalist S. frugiperda to detoxify the benzoxazinoid DIMBOA, a potent
 insecticidal phytotoxin produced by poaceous plants. However, while this
 detoxification capacity is conserved in several generalist Spodoptera
 species, Spodoptera picta, which specializes on Crinum plants, is unable
 to detoxify DIMBOA due to a nonfunctionalizing mutation in SpUGT33F34.
 Collectively, these findings provide new insight into the role of insect
 UGTs in host plant adaptation, the mechanistic basis of evolutionary
 transitions between generalism and specialism and offer new molecular
 targets for controlling a group of notorious insect pests.
description: Usage notes: (1) The transcriptomic raw data for different
 tissues of <em>Spodoptera frugiperda</em>; (2) The assembled
 genome and annotation of <em>Spodoptera picta</em>; (3) The
 alignments of <em>Spodoptera frugiperda </em>UGT proteins with
 Fringe as outgroup, UGT33 and UGT40 from five <em>Spodoptera
 </em>species; (4) Sequence chromatograms for the CRISPR
 mutants
description: # Data from: UDP-glucosyltransferases act as key determinants of host
 plant range in generalist and specialist Spodoptera species
 [https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.6wwpzgn5w](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.6wwpzgn5w) 1. The transcriptomic raw data for different tissues of *Spodoptera frugiperda*: Head, Epidermis, Hemolymph, Fat body, Foregut, Midgut and Hindgut. Seven tissues from six instar larvae of the *Spodoptera frugiperda* XZ strain were dissected and prepared for transcriptome sequencing. Ten individuals were pooled as a biological replicate and three biological replicates were performed for each tissue. Extraction, quality and quantity analysis of total RNA, library preparation and sequencing were completed on the DNBSEQ gene sequencing platform (Huada Genomics Co., Ltd, Shenzhen, China). 2. The assembled genome and annotation of *Spodoptera picta*: (1) spicta_final.fa, the assembled genome of *Spodoptera picta*. (2) spicta_final.gff3, the genome annotation of *Spodoptera picta*. 3. The alignments of *Spodoptera frugiperda* UGT proteins with Fringe as outgroup, UGT33 and UGT40 from five *Spodoptera* species: (1) The alignments of *Spodoptera frugiperda* UGT proteins with Fringe as outgroup; (2) The alignments of UGT33 proteins from five *Spodoptera* species. (3) The alignments of UGT40 proteins from five *Spodoptera* species 4. Sequence chromatograms for the CRISPR mutants: (1) Multiple peaks in chromatograms of directly sequenced PCR products of the G0 larvae indicate the presence of indel mutations in SeUGT33F24; (2) Multiple peaks in chromatograms of directly sequenced PCR products of the G0 larvae indicate the presence of indel mutations in SfUGT33F32; (3) Representative chromatogram derived from direct sequencing of PCR products flanking the sgRNA site of SeUGT33F24 from the WH-S-33F24 strain; (4) Representative chromatogram of direct sequencing of PCR products flanking the sgRNA site of SfUGT33F32 from the XZ-33F32 strain; (5) Representative chromatograms of direct sequencing of PCR products of individuals from XZ-d33c1 strain; (6) Representative chromatograms of direct sequencing of PCR products of individuals from XZ-d33c2 strain; (7) Representative chromatograms of direct sequencing of PCR products of individuals from XZ-d40c strain; (8) Representative sequencing chromatogram indicates only the wild type sequence present at the potential off-target site of the SeUGT33F7 gene in the WH-S-33F24 strain.