The Costs and Benefits of Two Secondary Symbionts in a Whitefly Host Shape Their Differential Prevalence in the Field.

ABSTRACT: Insects commonly harbor maternally inherited intracellular symbionts in nature, and the microbial partners often exert influence on host reproduction and fitness to promote their prevalence. Here, we investigated composition of symbionts and their biological effects in the invasive Bemisia tabaci MED species of a whitefly complex. Our field surveys revealed that populations of the MED whitefly, in addition to the primary symbiont Portiera, mainly contain two secondary symbionts Hamiltonella, which is nearly fixed in the host populations, and Cardinium with infection frequencies ranging from 0 to 86%. We isolated and established Cardinium-positive and Cardinium-free whitefly lines with a similar nuclear genetic background from a field population, an

SUBMITTER: Shan HW 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8515054 | biostudies-literature | 2021

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature