Linking Demography and Consumption of Henosepilachna vigintioctopunctata (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) Fed on Solanum photeinocarpum (Solanales: Solanaceae): With a New Method to Project the Uncertainty of Population Growth and Consumption.

Because life tables are capable of providing the most comprehensive description on the survival, stage differentiation, and the reproduction of animal populations, they can be considered as the bases of population ecology and pest management. Researchers concerned with studies involving life tables inevitably face the problem of describing the variabilities that occur in the survival, stage differentiation, and fecundity data. Finding a means to include these variabilities in population projections concerning pest management may be problematic. Henosepilachna vigintioctopunctata (F.) (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) is a pest of many plant species in Asia, including cultivated crops, ornamentals, and wild plants. The raw life history data (survival, stage differentiation, and fecundity) and consumption rate of both sexes of H. vigintioctopunctata reared on Solanum photeinocarpum Nakamura et Odashima (Solanales: Solanaceae) were collected in the laboratory and analyzed based on the age-stage, two-sex life table theory. The intrinsic rate of increase (r), finite rate of increase (λ), net reproductive rate (R0), mean generation time (T), and net consumption rate (C0) of H. vigintioctopunctata were 0.1312 d-1, 1.1402 d-1, 603.5 offspring, 48.8 d, and 77.8 cm2, respectively. By using the bootstrap technique with 100,000 samples, we demonstrated that the life tables constructed based on the 2.5th and 97.5th percentiles of R0 and λ can be used to describe the variabilities found in the survival and fecundity curves and to project the uncertainty of population growth.

Extracts of Koelreuteria henryi Dummer induce apoptosis and autophagy by inhibiting dihydrodiol dehydrogenase, thus enhancing anticancer effects.

Dihydrodiol dehydrogenase (DDH) is frequently detected in cancer cells, and its overexpression correlates with drug resistance, the downregulation of DNA repair mechanisms, increased frequency of tumor recurrence, cancer cell metastasis and poor prognosis. The silencing of DDH expression using siRNA, on the other hand, reduces drug resistance and cancer cell mobility. These data suggest that DDH may be an oncogene-related protein. However, no specific DDH inhibitor has been identified to date. Thus, in this study, we used DDH as a target enzyme in a live-cell enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay to screen Chinese medicinal herb extracts (CMHEs) with the aim of identifying a DDH inhibitor. Using this method, we found 49 among 796 CMHEs that inhibited DDH expression. We selected three potential extracts, which had the highest activity against DDH, for further fractionation using high-performance liquid chromatography. The active ingredient was identified by immunoblot analysis. The function of the active ingredient was characterized by cell function analysis. Our results revealed that the CMHE-purified compounds targeted DDH, inducing autophagy and reducing DNA repair, which in turn enhanced the cytotoxic effects of the anticancer drugs and irradiation.