Invasive Tephritid fruit flies are a global threat to both agriculture and horticulture industries. Biosecurity has played a critical role in reducing their damage but becomes more and more challenging after several key chemical pesticides were banned or withdrawn for health or environmental reasons. This has led to non-chemical approaches including heat and cold treatments being broadly utilized to get rid of fruit fly infestation. However, the molecular mechanisms to kill the flies underlying these stressors are not clear yet. This knowledge will certainly help refine current post-harvest treatment strategies and develop more efficient, cost-effective and environmentally friendly approaches for fruit fly management. Previously, the molecular response of the Mediterranean fruit fly, Ceratitis capitata (Wiedemann) to heat was examined thoroughly, in which 31 key genes were identified with significant changes in expression levels and their high-resolution expression timeline was constructed across 11 timepoints. However, whether these candidate genes respond to cold in the same way was unknown. Here, a temperature bioassay was conducted and the expression profiles of these genes were investigated across the same 11 timepoints using cold treatment. The results showed that most of candidate genes exhibited divergent expression profiles compared to heat treatment, suggesting that the fly molecular response to cold may be different from those to heat. This study provides new knowledge of Tephritid fruit fly response to cold at a molecular level, which could aid in improving current fruit fly management and facilitate the development of new strategies to control this serious horticultural insect pest.

入侵性实蝇属实蝇对农业和园艺业构成全球威胁。生物安全在减少它们的损害方面发挥了关键作用，但在几种关键的化学农药因健康或环境原因被禁止或撤回后，生物安全变得越来越具有挑战性。这导致非化学方法（包括热处理和冷处理）被广泛用于消除果蝇侵扰。然而，杀死这些压力源背后的苍蝇的分子机制尚不清楚。这些知识肯定将有助于完善当前的收获后处理策略，并为果蝇管理开发更有效、更具成本效益和环境友好的方法。此前，地中海果蝇的分子反应，Ceratitis capitata(Wiedemann) 对加热进行了彻底检查，其中 31 个关键基因被鉴定出表达水平发生显着变化，并在 11 个时间点构建了它们的高分辨率表达时间线。然而，这些候选基因是否以同样的方式对寒冷作出反应尚不清楚。在这里，进行了温度生物测定，并使用冷处理在相同的 11 个时间点研究了这些基因的表达谱。结果表明，与热处理相比，大多数候选基因表现出不同的表达谱，这表明果蝇对冷的分子反应可能与对热的反应不同。这项研究在分子水平上提供了有关实蝇对寒冷的反应的新知识，