Several viroids in the genus Pospiviroid can infect tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) and cause severe diseases, posing a serious threat to tomato production.  For simultaneous detection of six tomato-infecting pospiviroids - columnea latent viroid (CLVd), pepper chat fruit viroid (PCFVd), potato spindle tuber viroid (PSTVd), tomato apical stunt viroid (TASVd), tomato chlorotic dwarf viroid (TCDVd), and tomato planta macho viroid (TPMVd), we developed a universal probe based on a highly conserved 61 nt long sequence shared among them.  Compared with their specific probes, the universal probe has a similar, though slightly reduced, detection sensitivity and has the advantages of simple and cost-effective preparation and simultaneous detection of the six pospiviroids.  In addition, the universal probe was used in dot-blot hybridization assays for a large-scale survey of viroid(s) in tomato plantings in China.  Only PSTVd was detected in a few greenhouse-planted tomato plants.  Sequence analysis revealed that these tomato PSTVd isolates may have been introduced from tomato seeds imported from abroad. 

As intracellular fatty acid (FA) carriers, FA-binding proteins (FABPs) widely participate in the absorption, transport, and metabolism of FAs.  It is a key protein in insect lipid metabolism and plays an important role in various physiological activities of insects.  An FABP gene (HvFABP) was cloned from the transcriptional library of Heortia vitessoides Moore (Lepidoptera: Crambidae), and its expression patterns were determined using reverse transcription quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR).  Stage- and tissue-specific expression profiles indicated that HvFABP highly expressed from prepupal to adult stages and in larval midgut and adult wings.  HvFABP expression may be induced through starvation, mRNA expression was downregulated at 24 and 48 h and upregulated at 72 h after starvation.  Furthermore, 20-hydroxyecdysone can induce the upregulation of its expression.  RNA interference-mediated silencing of HvFABP significantly inhibited HvFABP expression, resulting in delayed development, abnormal molting or lethal phenotypes, and a significantly reduced survival rate.  These results indicate that HvFABP plays a key role in the molting of H. vitessoides