Kean Research Offers New Tools in the Fight Against Spotted Lanternflies

While many New Jerseyans know to squash spotted lanternflies to protect plants, new research from a Kean University faculty member offers more effective methods to curb their spread. 

Brenna Levine, Ph.D., an assistant professor of biology at Kean, sequenced the lanternfly’s genome, identifying some genes that could eventually be targeted to reduce populations of the invasive insect. 

The study, which was a collaboration with researchers from New York University and Kean graduate student Nicolas Largotta, was funded through a National Science Foundation grant awarded to Kean. The findings were published April 5 in the journal Scientific Data, part of the Nature Portfolio. 

“With this high-quality genome assembly, Brenna and her collaborators are equipping researchers and land managers with the genetic insights needed to develop smarter, more effective strategies against the spotted lanternfly — an invasive species threatening agriculture across continents,” said Susannah Porterfield, Kean’s vice president for research. 

The study pinpoints genes related to how lanternflies pick up on each other’s scents during mating season, which could lead to improvements in traps that attract the insects using synthetic pheromones. By revealing the lanternfly’s genetic vulnerabilities, the findings could also be used to develop better pesticides. 

Notably, the study clarified how to determine the sex of a lanternfly. Down the road, Levine said, that could enable the creation of sterile female lanternflies whose release would reduce the number of insects hatched each year. 

“For now, how the data will be used is all speculation,” she said, “but just having this resource is an important step, as it’s the best we’ve had for this species.” 

The spotted lanternfly, also known as Lycorma delicatula, is a planthopper native to Asia that was introduced in about 2012 to America, where it now lives in 17 states, Levine said. She said the lanternfly that provided the study’s main genomic information was found on Kean’s campus in Union. 

While scientists have examined the genome of lanternflies before, Levine said her study is the first to provide details down to the chromosomal level and to explain how all the genes are organized and related. 

“We determined that the species has 13 chromosomes, identified the sex chromosome, identified over 12,000 genes and pinpointed genes that may be important for (population) control,” she said. 

In addition to its potential uses in reducing lanternfly numbers, genomic information from the study will have broader implications, Levine said. 

“Spotted lanternflies are in an order called Hemiptera, a really big group of insects that includes the problematic brown marmorated stink bug,” she said. “You can annotate better genomes for other organisms if you have one you can compare it to, so this should be an important resource.” 

Even more broadly, Levine said, the lanternfly genome “will help us figure out how the process of invasion molds genomes and how the genomic variation already in a species affects its ability to evolve in response to change, such as urbanization.” 

In her molecular ecology lab, Levine and her team have sequenced the genomes of hundreds of lanternflies from around the world, with the goal of understanding how urbanization is affecting their evolution. 

Levine was excited to learn on April 7 that another paper by her team, this one an urban evolution study showing that spotted lanternflies are larger in cities, has been accepted for publication in the journal Integrative and Comparative Biology. 

“This fun paper on body size is directly related to our work on urban evolution in spotted lanternflies that spawned our genome work,” she said.