scholarly journals Transmission of a Protease-Secreting Bacterial Symbiont Among Pea Aphids via Host Plants

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marisa Skaljac ◽  
Heiko Vogel ◽  
Natalie Wielsch ◽  
Sanja Mihajlovic ◽  
Andreas Vilcinskas
Keyword(s):  
Host Plants ◽  
Bacterial Symbiont ◽  
Pea Aphids

scholarly journals Effects of Endosymbiont Disruption on the Nutritional Dynamics of the Pea Aphid Acyrthosiphon pisum

Insects ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 161 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ning Lv ◽  
Lei Wang ◽  
Wen Sang ◽  
Chang-Zhong Liu ◽  
Bao-Li Qiu
Keyword(s):  
Energy Metabolism ◽  
Host Plants ◽  
Acyrthosiphon Pisum ◽  
Soluble Sugars ◽  
Pea Aphid ◽  
Buchnera Aphidicola ◽  
Phloem Sap ◽  
Nutritional Factors ◽  
Pea Aphids ◽  
Aphid Host

Pea aphid (Acyrthosiphon pisum) is a worldwide pest that feeds exclusively on the phloem sap of numerous host plants. It harbours a well-known primary endosymbiont Buchnera aphidicola that helps to overcome the nutritional deficiency of a plant-based diet. However, how the Buchnera contributes to the nutritional and energy metabolism of its aphid host is unclear to date. In the current study, the function of Buchnera in relation to nutritional synthesis of pea aphid was investigated by disrupting the primary endosymbiont with an antibiotic rifampicin. Our findings revealed that the disruption of Buchnera led to infertility and higher loss in body mass of aphid hosts. Body length and width were also decreased significantly compared to healthy aphids. The detection of nutrition indicated that the quantity of proteins, soluble sugars, and glycogen in aposymbiotic pea aphids increased slowly with the growth of the aphid host. In comparison, the quantities of all the nutritional factors were significantly lower than those of symbiotic pea aphids, while the quantity of total lipid and neutral fat in aposymbiotic pea aphids were distinctly higher than those of symbiotic ones. Thus, we concluded that the significant reduction of the total amount of proteins, soluble sugars, and glycogen and the significant increase of neutral fats in aposymbiotic pea aphids were due to the disruption of Buchnera, which confirmed that the function of Buchnera is irreplaceable in the pea aphid.

scholarly journals Fight or Flight? Alternative Defense of the Pea Aphids, Acyrthosiphon pisum on Different Host Plants

Insects ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (7) ◽  
pp. 614
Author(s):  
Martin John Martin ◽  
Yueming Li ◽  
Li Ma ◽  
Yi Feng ◽  
Zhiqiang Lu
Keyword(s):  
Host Plant ◽  
Host Plants ◽  
Acyrthosiphon Pisum ◽  
Fungal Infections ◽  
Alternative Strategies ◽  
Immunological Responses ◽  
Offspring Production ◽  
Broad Beans ◽  
Pea Aphids ◽  
Fecundity Compensation

Non-immunological responses are important alternative strategies for animals to deal with pathogens. It has long been recognized that fecundity compensation and production of winged offspring are two common non-immunological responses used by aphids when confronted with predators or pathogens. However, the effects of host plant on these responses have received little attention. This study investigated the effects of host plant on non-immunological defense in the pea aphids, Acyrthosiphon pisum, after bacterial and fungal infections. The aphids were raised in two groups, with one group being raised on broad beans and the other group being raised on alfalfa. The secondary symbiont background was examined, and the aphids were then infected with bacteria and fungus to assess fecundity and winged offspring production. We found that aphids that had been fed alfalfa had fewer offspring than those fed broad beans. Alfalfa-fed aphids produced more winged offspring in response to S. aureus and B. bassiana infections. Our findings suggest that the host plant plays a key role in fecundity and winged offspring production in pea aphid colony.

Jumping – ship – can have its costs: implications of predation and host plant species for the maintenance of pea aphid (Acyrthosiphon pisum Harris) colour polymorphism

2013 ◽  
Vol 103 (5) ◽  
pp. 578-583 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adalbert Balog
Keyword(s):  
Host Plant ◽  
Host Plants ◽  
Acyrthosiphon Pisum ◽  
Trifolium Pratense ◽  
Red Clover ◽  
Pea Aphid ◽  
Colour Polymorphism ◽  
Plant Host ◽  
Pea Aphids ◽  
Reduction Effect

AbstractThe interplay between the host plant of an insect herbivore and an insect predator (here two-spot ladybird beetles; Adalia bipunctata (L).; Coleoptera: Coccinellidae), feeding upon such a herbivore was examined in the laboratory as factors possibly determining the differential abundance and success of green and red host races of pea aphid, Acyrthosiphon pisum Harris. The experiment comprised three treatments: two host plants (bean and clover), two treatment levels (control and predation) and three colour morph levels (green alone, red alone and green and red in mixture). Green morphs had higher fitness on the general host plant, bean Vicia faba, than on the derived host, clover (Trifolium pratense), in the absence of predation. Although green morph fitness was reduced by predation when infesting bean together with reds, there was no observable net fitness loss due to predation on clover in mixed colonies with red morphs. Red morphs exhibited fitness loss alone on both bean and clover, while clover plants seemingly prevented fitness loss in the presence of predation when red morphs were mixed with green ones. According to this scenario, when colour morphs existed as a mixed colony, the net fitness of either pea aphid morph was not influenced by predation on clover. Predators had significant effects only on red morphs on broad bean either when alone or were mixed together with green morphs. Thus, only red morphs experienced the benefits of switching from the general to the derived host red clover in the presence of predation. For green morphs, there was no apparent cost of switching host plants when they faced predation. Hence, the co-existence of green-red colour polymorphism of pea aphids on single host plants appears to be maintained by the morph gaining fitness on the derived host due to a host plant– and predation–reduction effect. These findings have important implications for understanding the ecology and evolution of host switching by different colour-plant host adapted races of pea aphids.

scholarly journals How symbiosis and ecological context influence the variable expression of transgenerational wing induction upon fungal infection of aphids

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wen-Hao Tan ◽  
Miguel L. Reyes ◽  
Kim L. Hoang ◽  
Tarik Acevedo ◽  
Fredrick Leon ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Fungal Infection ◽  
Fungal Pathogens ◽  
Host Plants ◽  
Acyrthosiphon Pisum ◽  
Environmental Stressors ◽  
Bacterial Symbionts ◽  
Complex Interplay ◽  
Variable Expression ◽  
Pathogen Load ◽  
Pea Aphids

AbstractAphids, like most animals, mount a diverse set of defenses against pathogens. For aphids, two of the best studied defenses are symbiont-conferred protection and transgenerational wing induction. Aphids can harbor bacterial symbionts that provide protection against pathogens, parasitoids and predators, as well as against other environmental stressors. In response to signals of danger, aphids also protect not themselves but their offspring by producing more winged than unwinged offspring as a way to ensure that their progeny may be able to escape deteriorating conditions. Such transgenerational wing induction has been studied most commonly as a response to overcrowding of host plants and presence of predators, but recent evidence suggests that pea aphids (Acyrthosiphon pisum) may also begin to produce a greater proportion of winged offspring when infected with fungal pathogens. Here, we explore this phenomenon further by asking how protective symbionts, pathogen dosage and environmental conditions influence this response. Overall, while we find some evidence that protective symbionts can modulate transgenerational wing induction in response to fungal pathogens, we observe that transgenerational wing induction in response to fungal infection is highly variable. That variability cannot be explained entirely by symbiont association, by pathogen load or by environmental stress, leaving the possibility that a complex interplay of genotypic and environmental factors may together influence this trait.

scholarly journals Effects of bacterial secondary symbionts on host plant use in pea aphids

2010 ◽  
Vol 278 (1706) ◽  
pp. 760-766 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. H. C. McLean ◽  
M. van Asch ◽  
J. Ferrari ◽  
H. C. J. Godfray
Keyword(s):  
Host Plant ◽  
Plant Species ◽  
Host Plants ◽  
Acyrthosiphon Pisum ◽  
Direct Role ◽  
Pea Aphids ◽  
Bacterial Associations ◽  
Different Strains ◽  
Species Specific ◽  
Aphid Clones

Aphids possess several facultative bacterial symbionts that have important effects on their hosts' biology. These have been most closely studied in the pea aphid ( Acyrthosiphon pisum ), a species that feeds on multiple host plants. Whether secondary symbionts influence host plant utilization is unclear. We report the fitness consequences of introducing different strains of the symbiont Hamiltonella defensa into three aphid clones collected on Lathyrus pratensis that naturally lack symbionts, and of removing symbionts from 20 natural aphid–bacterial associations. Infection decreased fitness on Lathyrus but not on Vicia faba , a plant on which most pea aphids readily feed. This may explain the unusually low prevalence of symbionts in aphids collected on Lathyrus . There was no effect of presence of symbiont on performance of the aphids on the host plants of the clones from which the H. defensa strains were isolated. Removing the symbiont from natural aphid–bacterial associations led to an average approximate 20 per cent reduction in fecundity, both on the natural host plant and on V. faba , suggesting general rather than plant-species-specific effects of the symbiont. Throughout, we find significant genetic variation among aphid clones. The results provide no evidence that secondary symbionts have a major direct role in facilitating aphid utilization of particular host plant species.

Yellow Brazilian Pepper-tree Leaf Galler (suggested common name) Calophya latiforceps Burckhardt (Insecta: Hemiptera: Calophyidae: Calophyinae)

EDIS ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 2017 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
James P. Cuda ◽  
Patricia Prade ◽  
Carey R. Minteer-Killian
Keyword(s):  
Biological Control ◽  
North America ◽  
Natural Enemies ◽  
Host Plants ◽  
Classical Biological Control ◽  
Biological Control Agents ◽  
Pepper Tree ◽  
Brazilian Pepper ◽  
Close Relatives ◽  
Tree Leaf

In the late 1970s, Brazilian peppertree, Schinus terebinthifolia Raddi (Sapindales: Anacardiaceae), was targeted for classical biological control in Florida because its invasive properties (see Host Plants) are consistent with escape from natural enemies (Williams 1954), and there are no native Schinus spp. in North America. The lack of native close relatives should minimize the risk of damage to non-target plants from introduced biological control agents (Pemberton 2000). [...]

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document