Nilaparvata lugens is one of the most notorious pest insects of cultured rice, and outbreaks of N. lugens cause high economic losses each year. While pest control by chemical pesticides is still the standard procedure for treating N. lugens infections, excessive use of these insecticides has led to the emergence of resistant strains and high pesticide residues in plants for human consumption and the environment. Therefore, novel and environment‐friendly pest control strategies are needed. In previous studies, selenium was shown to protect selenium‐accumulating plants from biotic stress. However, studies on nonaccumulator (crop) plants are lacking. In this study, rice plants (Oryza sativa, Nipponbare) were treated with sodium selenate by seed priming and foliar spray and then infested with N. lugens. Brown planthoppers feeding on these plants showed increased mortality compared to those feeding on control plants. Treatment of the plants with sodium selenate did not affect the enzymes involved in the biosynthesis of the plant stress hormones jasmonic acid and salicylic acid, suggesting that the observed insect mortality cannot be attributed to the activation of these hormonal plant defenses. Feeding assays using an artificial diet supplemented with sodium selenate revealed direct toxicity toward N. lugens. With a low concentration of 6.5 ± 1.5 µM sodium selenate, half of the insects were killed after 3 days. In summary, sodium selenate treatment of plants can be used as a potential alternative pest management strategy to protect rice against N. lugens infestation through direct toxicity.

中文翻译：

---

硒酸钠的直接毒性保护水稻免受褐飞虱的侵害。

褐飞虱是稻田中最臭名昭著的害虫之一，每年爆发的褐飞虱会造成很高的经济损失。尽管化学农药控制害虫仍然是治疗猪肺炎奈瑟氏菌感染的标准程序，但过量使用这些杀虫剂导致植物中出现抗药性菌株和大量农药残留，以供人类消费和环境使用。因此，需要新颖且环保的害虫防治策略。在以前的研究中，硒被证明可以保护富硒植物免受生物胁迫。但是，缺乏对非蓄积植物的研究。在这项研究中，水稻植株（Oryza sativa，Nipponbare）用硒酸钠通过种子底漆和叶面喷雾处理，然后用N. lugens感染。与以对照植物为食的褐飞虱相比，以这些植物为食的褐飞虱表现出更高的死亡率。用硒酸钠处理植物不会影响参与植物胁迫激素茉莉酸和水杨酸生物合成的酶，这表明观察到的昆虫死亡率不能归因于这些激素植物防御的激活。使用补充了硒酸钠的人工饮食进行的饲喂试验显示对猪肺结核有直接毒性。在6.5±1.5 µM的低浓度硒酸钠下，三天后杀死了一半的昆虫。总之，硒酸钠对植物的处理可作为潜在的替代害虫管理策略，通过直接毒性保护水稻免受光合作用的侵害。