ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Nutr.
Sec. Nutrition and Metabolism
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fnut.2025.1636519
Stage-Specific Metabolic Allocation: Nutrient Investment Strategies During Lysiphlebia japonica Ashmead Development
Provisionally accepted
- 1Tarim University, Aral, China
- 2Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences Cotton Research Institute, Anyang, China
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Parasitic wasps are key biological control agents that rely on precise nutrient allocation to regulate host exploitation and optimize their own development. Nutrients, particularly lipids and energy-related metabolites, play a critical role in shaping stagespecific growth and survival strategies in parasitic wasps. To analyze the allocation patterns of metabolite resources during development of parasitoid wasps, the multiomics analysis was employed to systematically investigate nutrient dynamics across three growth periods in Lysiphlebia japonica Ashmead, a major parasitoid of cotton aphid (Aphis gossypii Glover). Here, a total of 753 metabolites were detected by untargeted metabolomics, with numerous nutritionally critical compounds including amino acids, fatty acids and carbohydrates showed stage-specific variations. A total of 31 fatty acids (11 SFAs, 9 MUFAs, 11 PUFAs) were identified by targeted fatty acid detection, exhibiting a notable variation across development notably, PUFAs remained consistently dominant throughout all stages, suggesting their essential role in parasitoid growth. Correlation analysis further indicated that α-ketoglutaric acid and glutamic acid were functionally associated with fatty acids, serving as potential developmental biomarkers. This study presented the first comprehensive metabolomic atlas of L. japonica development, uncovering nutrient allocation strategies that synchronize with its life cycle. By identifying key metabolites and fatty acids involved in its growth, our work provided a theoretical foundation for enhanced artificial rearing of parasitic wasps.Overall, these findings offered novel insights for translating omics data into practical applications, with significant theoretical and practical implications for developing improved biological control strategies.
Keywords: multi-omics, Metabolites, fatty acid, parasitic wasps, Growth periods
Received: 28 May 2025; Accepted: 21 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zhou, Huangfu, Wang, Luo, Cui, Xiangzhen, Gao and Wan. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Xueke Gao, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences Cotton Research Institute, Anyang, China
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