Thermosensory TRPM, TRPL, and TRPV-inactive regulate trehalose metabolism to confer cold tolerance in Bemisia tabaci: prospects for RNAi-based pest control

Cold tolerance is a major determinant of insect survival and climate resilience, yet the molecular mechanisms coordinating environmental sensing with metabolic adaptation remain poorly understood in invasive pests. Here, we investigated the role of Transient Receptor Potential (TRP) channels and their interaction with trehalose metabolism during cold adaptation in Bemisia tabaci Asia II-1 using integrated transcriptional profiling, RNA interference (RNAi), survival assays, and metabolic gene-expression analyses. Acute cold exposure (20, 15, 10, and 5 °C for 30 min-2 h) induced significant temperature- and time-dependent regulation of multiple TRP genes ( P < 0.0001), with TRPM exhibiting the strongest induction (0.70–9.30-fold), followed by TRPV-Inactive (0.58–5.24-fold) and TRPL (0.91–4.83-fold). Under cyclic cold stress, TRPM expression progressively increased, reaching 8.58-fold induction by Day 7, indicating sustained TRP-mediated cold acclimation. Functional silencing through dsRNA feeding (250 ng µL –1 ; 24 h) significantly impaired cold tolerance, reducing survival from 92.2 to 38.8% at 10 °C and from 83.3 to 3.9% at 5 °C under combined TRP knockdown conditions. Analysis of trehalose metabolism revealed strong induction of trehalose-6-phosphate synthase ( TPS ) and suppression of trehalase ( TRE ) during severe cold stress, whereas combined TRP silencing caused near-complete collapse of TPS expression. These findings reveal a previously uncharacterized thermosensory-metabolic regulatory network linking TRP -channel signalling with trehalose metabolism during insect cold adaptation. The study further identifies thermosensory ion channels as promising molecular targets for RNAi-based sustainable management of climate-resilient whitefly populations under changing environmental conditions.