A protein from the salivary glands of the pea aphid, Acyrthosiphon pisum, is essential in feeding on a host plant.

ABSTRACT: In feeding, aphids inject saliva into plant tissues, gaining access to phloem sap and eliciting (and sometimes overcoming) plant responses. We are examining the involvement, in this aphid-plant interaction, of individual aphid proteins and enzymes, as identified in a salivary gland cDNA library. Here, we focus on a salivary protein we have arbitrarily designated Protein C002. We have shown, by using RNAi-based transcript knockdown, that this protein is important in the survival of the pea aphid (Acyrthosiphon pisum) on fava bean, a host plant. Here, we further characterize the protein, its transcript, and its gene, and we study the feeding process of knockdown aphids. The encoded protein fails to match any protein outside of the family Aphididae. By using in situ hybridization and immunohi

SUBMITTER: Mutti NS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2481341 | biostudies-literature | 2008 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature