DAS‐ELISA was used to study the presence of viruses in four aphid species (Aphis gossypii, Aphis craccivora, Myzus persicae and Macrosiphum euphorbiae) and in their host plants potato, capsicum and tomato. Samples were collected in different regions in Tunisia: north, Cap Bon, Sahel, centre and south. A. gossypii and M. persicae carried all the viruses detected: Cucumber mosaic cucumovirus, Tomato aspermy cucumovirus, Tobacco etch potyvirus, Potato Y potyvirus, Alfalfa mosaic alfamovirus and Potato leafroll polerovirus. These two aphids were also those that occurred most frequently on the crops concerned.
Mariner-like elements (MLEs) are Class II transposons present in all eukaryotic genomes in which MLEs have been searched for. This article reports the detection of MLEs in seven of the main fruit tree aphid species out of eight species studied. Deleted MLE sequences of 916-919 bp were characterized, using the terminal-inverted repeats (TIRs) of mariner elements belonging to the mauritiana Subfamily as primers. All the sequences detected were deleted copies of full-length elements that included the 3'- and 5'-TIRs but displayed internal deletions affecting Mos1 activity. Networks based on the mtDNA cytochrome oxidase subunit-I (CO-I) and MLE sequences were incongruent, suggesting that mutations in transposon sequences had accumulated before speciation of tree aphid species occurred, and that they have been maintained in this species via vertical transmissions. This is the first evidence of the widespread occurrence of MLEs in aphids.
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