Stress-induced changes in abundance differ among obligate and facultative endosymbionts of the soybean aphid.

ABSTRACT: Bacterial endosymbionts can drive evolutionary novelty by conferring adaptive benefits under adverse environmental conditions. Among aphid species there is growing evidence that symbionts influence tolerance to various forms of stress. However, the extent to which stress inflicted on the aphid host has cascading effects on symbiont community dynamics remains poorly understood. Here we simultaneously quantified the effect of host-plant induced and xenobiotic stress on soybean aphid (Aphis glycines) fitness and relative abundance of its three bacterial symbionts. Exposure to soybean defensive stress (Rag1 gene) and a neurotoxic insecticide (thiamethoxam) substantially reduced aphid composite fitness (survival × reproduction) by 74 ± 10% and 92 ± 2%, respectively, which in turn induced distin

SUBMITTER: Enders LS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4739556 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature