To prevent the spread of diseases in humans, animals or plants, determining whether potential vectors are infected is crucial. For example, early detection of the citrus disease #Huanglongbing, which has been a scourge on the citrus industries around the world, is a critical need. This vector-borne disease is transmitted by #Diaphorina citri, the Asian citrus psyllid, which carries the putative bacterial phytopathogen, Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus (CLas). In this investigation, we introduced Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy #LIBS to reveal key biochemical differences between CLas-infected and non-infected psyllids. The emission spectra captured from laser ablation of CLas-infected and healthy psyllids were processed through the principal component analysis (PCA) method and compared. Thirteen peaks from seven different elements were detected in D. citri. The t-test showed that CLas-infected D. citri were deficients in zinc, iron, copper, magnesium, calcium, and nitrogen. The #PCA showed that LIBS can successfully differentiate between CLas-infected and healthy D. citri by comparing their elemental profile. In this work, we demonstrated a method that allows for a fast and precise compositional microanalysis of an insect vector which can contribute to the early detection of citrus huanglongbing.
How to Cite: Killiny, N., Etxeberria, E., Flores, A. P., Blanco, P. G., Reyes, T. F., & Cabrera, L. P. (2019). Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) as a novel technique for detecting bacterial infection in insects. Scientific reports, 9(1), 2449.
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