Bacterial communities associated with host-adapted populations of pea aphids revealed by deep sequencing of 16S ribosomal DNA.

ABSTRACT: Associations between microbes and animals are ubiquitous and hosts may benefit from harbouring microbial communities through improved resource exploitation or resistance to environmental stress. The pea aphid, Acyrthosiphon pisum, is the host of heritable bacterial symbionts, including the obligate endosymbiont Buchnera aphidicola and several facultative symbionts. While obligate symbionts supply aphids with key nutrients, facultative symbionts influence their hosts in many ways such as protection against natural enemies, heat tolerance, color change and reproduction alteration. The pea aphid also encompasses multiple plant-specialized biotypes, each adapted to one or a few legume species. Facultative symbiont communities differ strongly between biotypes, although bacterial involvement in

SUBMITTER: Gauthier JP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4373712 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature