Pesticide application has little influence on coding and non-coding gene expressions in rice

Agricultural insects are one of the major threats to crop yield. It is a known fact that pesticide application is an extensive approach to eliminate insect pests, and has severe adverse effects on environment and ecosystem; however, there is lack of knowledge whether it could influence the physiology and metabolic processes in plants.

Here, we systemically analyzed the transcriptomic changes in rice after a spray of two commercial pesticides, Abamectin (ABM) and Thiamethoxam (TXM). We found only a limited number of genes (0.91%) and (1.24%) were altered by ABM and TXM respectively, indicating that these pesticides cannot dramatically affect the performance of rice. Nevertheless, we characterized 1140 Differentially Expressed Genes (DEGs) interacting with 105 long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) that can be impacted by the two pesticides, suggesting their certain involvement in response to farm chemicals. Moreover, we detected 274 alternative splicing (AS) alterations accompanied by host genes expressions, elucidating a potential role of AS in control of gene transcription during insecticide spraying. Finally, we identified 488 transposons that were significantly changed with pesticides treatment, leading to a variation in adjacent coding or non-coding transcripts.

Altogether, our results provide valuable insights into pest management through appropriate timing and balanced mixture, these pesticides have no harmful effects on crop physiology over sustainable application of field drugs.