Relationship between water soluble carbohydrate content, aphid endosymbionts and clonal performance of Sitobion avenae on cocksfoot cultivars.

ABSTRACT: Aphids feed on plant phloem sap, rich in sugars but poor in essential amino acids. However, sugars cause osmotic regulation problems for aphids, which they overcome by hydrolysing the sugars in their gut and polymerising the hydrolysis products into oligosaccharides, excreted with honeydew. Aphids harbour primary bacterial endosymbionts, which supply them with essential amino acids necessary for survival. They also harbour secondary (facultative) endosymbionts (sfS), some of which have a positive impact on life history traits, although it is not yet known whether they also play a role in providing effective tolerance to differing levels of water soluble carbohydrates (WSCs). We investigated the relationship between WSC content of cocksfoot cultivars and performance of clones of the English

SUBMITTER: Alkhedir H 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3544763 | biostudies-literature | 2013

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature