Feeding behavior, life history, and virus transmission ability of Bemisia tabaci Mediterranean species (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae) under elevated CO₂

Abstract

The continuous rise of CO 2 concentrations in the atmosphere is reducing plant nutritional quality for herbivores and indirectly affects their performance. The whitefly (Bemisia tabaci, Gennadius) is a major worldwide pest of agricultural crops causing significant yield losses. This study investigated the plant-mediated indirect effects of elevated CO 2 on the feeding behavior and life history of B. tabaci Mediterranean species. Eggplants were grown under elevated and ambient CO 2 concentrations for 3 weeks after which plants were either used to monitor the feeding behavior of whiteflies using the Electrical Penetration Graph technique or to examine fecundity and fertility of whiteflies. Plant leaf carbon, nitrogen, phenols and protein contents were also analyzed for each treatment. Bemisia tabaci feeding on plants exposed to elevated CO 2 showed a longer phloem ingestion and greater fertility compared to those exposed to ambient CO 2 suggesting that B. tabaci is capable of compensating for the plant nutritional deficit. Additionally, this study looked at the transmission of the virus Tomato yellow leaf curl virus (Begomovirus) by B. tabaci exposing source and receptor tomato plants to ambient or elevated CO 2 levels before or after virus transmission tests. Results indicate that B. tabaci transmitted the virus at the same rate independent of the CO 2 levels and plant treatment. Therefore, we conclude that B. tabaci Mediterranean species prevails over the difficulties that changes in CO 2 concentrations may cause and it is predicted that under future climate change conditions, B. tabaci would continue to be considered a serious threat for agriculture worldwide.

Impact of Abiotic Stresses on Plant Virus Transmission by Aphids

“…In recent years, there have been some reports on the effects of other abiotic factors, namely CO 2 , O 3 , and water stress, on the spread of viral diseases as a consequence of the extreme environmental changes [48,[51][52][53][54][55][56][57][58]. Dader and colleagues [53] thoroughly examined the impact of elevated CO 2 levels (eCO 2 ) on M. persicae life history, feeding behaviour, and the virus transmission ability of Cucumber mosaic virus (CMV; cucumovirus) to pepper plants (Capsicum annuum), transmitted in a non-circulative manner.…”

“…In particular, as evoked in the previous section, abiotic stresses may affect the feeding behaviour and fitness of sap-sucking insects through changes in plant physiology, alteration of host plant quality (i.e., secondary metabolites, essential amino acids, carbohydrates pools, etc. ), and activation of plant defences [67][68][69], with potential consequences for virus transmission efficiency [53,54,56]. Some aphid species are reported to have a greater reproductive capacity under drought conditions than under non-drought conditions [70].…”

Indirect effect of elevated CO2 concentration on Bemisia tabaci MEAM1 feeding on Bt soybean plants

“…genetically modified with the Bt gene and grown in the presence of eCO 2 . Furthermore, Coviella, Morgan, and Trumble (2000) However, it should be noted that previous investigations have shown that a decrease in the nitrogen content and an increase in the C:N ratio are not directly linked to the Bt protein (Jablonski, Wang, & Curtis, 2002;Peñalver-Cruz et al, 2019;Sun, Su, & Ge, 2010;Yifei et al, 2018). In addition, we observed morphological changes in the soybean plants grown in the presence of eCO 2 .…”

“…aphids and whiteflies), alterations in the metabolic pathways and plant nutritional quality can influence their feeding behaviour, biology and ability to transmit plant pathogens, which may differ depending on a specific host plant (Coviella & Trumble, 1999; Dáder, Fereres, Moreno, & Trębicki, 2016; Jones, 2016; Robinson, Ryan, & Newman, 2012; Trębicki et al., 2017; Zavala, Gog, & Giacometti, 2017). It has been shown that plants grown under elevated CO 2 favour population abundance, feeding efficiency and fitness of certain aphid (Guo et al., 2017; Xie et al., 2014) and whitefly species (Li, Liu, Xiao, Li, & Chen, 2011; Peñalver‐Cruz et al., 2019); other studies have demonstrated that other aphid species, such as Aulacorthum solani (Hughes & Bazzaz, 2001), and whiteflies (MEAM1) (Wang, Wang, Sun, & Ge, 2014) did not manifest any physiological or populational adverse effects under eCO 2 . Conversely, eCO 2 may negatively influence physiological (e.g.…”

Host Plant Resistance to Bemisia tabaci to Control Damage Caused in Tomato Plants by the Emerging Crinivirus Tomato Chlorosis Virus

“…Then, the less efficient ToCV primary virus spread shown in the B. tabaci-resistant tomato genotype could have been the result of a restricted B. tabaci interaction with these plants owing to their reduced attractiveness to the insect landing (Rodríguez-López et al, 2011). However, the relevance of B. tabaci feeding behavior after landing on a plant and the possible effects on virus transmission has also been discussed (Peñalver-Cruz et al, 2020). ToCV is a phloem-restricted virus in tomato and its inoculation is mainly associated with effective stylet activities in phloem sieve elements (Prado Maluta et al, 2017).…”