The price of protection: a defensive endosymbiont impairs nymph growth in the bird cherry-oat aphid, Rhopalosiphum padi.

ABSTRACT: Bacterial endosymbionts have enabled aphids to adapt to a range of stressors, but their effects in many aphid species remain to be established. The bird cherry-oat aphid, Rhopalosiphum padi (Linnaeus), is an important pest of cereals worldwide and has been reported to form symbiotic associations with Serratia symbiotica and Sitobion miscanthi L-type symbiont endobacteria, although the resulting aphid phenotype has not been described. This study presents the first report of R. padi infection with the facultative bacterial endosymbiont Hamiltonella defensa. Individuals of R. padi were sampled from populations in Eastern Scotland, UK, and shown to represent seven R. padi genotypes based on the size of polymorphic microsatellite markers; two of these genotypes harbored H. defensa. In parasitis

SUBMITTER: Leybourne DJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7379937 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature