UDP-glycosyltransferases act as key determinants of host plant range in generalist and specialist Spodoptera species

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 v..., Usage notes: (1) The transcriptomic raw data for different tissues of Spodoptera frugiperda; (2) The assembled genome and annotation of Spodoptera picta; (3) The alignments of Spodoptera frugiperda UGT proteins with Fringe as outgroup, UGT33 and UGT40 from five Spodoptera species; (4) Sequence chromatograms for the CRISPR mutants, , # 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*...