Facultative bacterial endosymbionts shape parasitoid food webs in natural host populations: A correlative analysis.

ABSTRACT: Facultative bacterial endosymbionts can protect their aphid hosts from natural enemies such as hymenopteran parasitoids. As such, they have the capability to modulate interactions between aphids, parasitoids and hyperparasitoids. However, the magnitude of these effects in natural aphid populations and their associated parasitoid communities is currently unknown. Moreover, environmental factors such as plant fertilization and landscape complexity are known to affect aphid-parasitoid interactions but it remains unclear how such environmental factors affect the interplay between aphids, parasitoids and endosymbionts. Here, we tested whether facultative endosymbionts confer protection to parasitoids in natural populations of the English grain aphid, Sitobion avenae, and if this is affected by

SUBMITTER: Ye Z 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6099228 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature