Biotechnological advancements for sustainable management of thrips

Thrips are minute, slender, polyphagous, thysanopteran insect pests that cause huge economic losses to crops by directly feeding on the phloem sap and transmitting several plant viruses. Thrips have emerged as a major threat to global agriculture and food security. Current management options mainly rely on chemical insecticides; however, thrips have evolved resistance to most commonly used insecticides, making management extremely difficult. The availability of host-plant resistance is limited in the case of thrips. Biotechnological approaches such as genetic engineering, RNA interference (RNAi), antisense oligonucleotides (ASOs), artificial microRNA (amiRNA), and genome editing have paved the way for the development of environmentally sustainable thrips management options. However, the adoption of these biotechnological approaches needs further refinement and validation. Transgenic plants with anti-herbivory proteins hold promise to be successful in managing thrips. Spray-induced gene silencing (SIGS) and gene editing would be novel alternatives to hazardous pesticides. This review discusses the progress made towards using modern biotechnological interventions in functional genomics, emphasizing their application in sustainable thrips management.