The whitefly Bemisia tabaci, one of the most important agricultural pests worldwide, can attack more than 600 host plants. We found that, through an exceptional horizontal gene transfer event, the whitefly has acquired the plant-derived phenolic glucoside malonyltransferase gene BtPMaT1. This gene enables whiteflies to neutralize phenolic glucosides, which widely exist in host plants of whitefly such as tomato. Silencing BtPMaT1 by genetically transforming tomato plants to produce small interfering RNAs impairs the whiteflies’ detoxification ability. Our study provided the first empirical evidence for the horizontal transfer of functional plant-derived genes to insects. These findings reveal how insects develop resistance to plant defenses by horizontal gene transfer, open up a new perspective for the adaptive evolution of insects, and provide a new idea for precise and eco-friendly whitefly management.

Plant-derived horizontal transfer gene BtPMaT1 empowers the whitefly to neutralize plant phenolic glycosides