Probing behavior of aposymbiotic green peach aphid (Myzus persicae) on susceptible Solanum tuberosum and resistant Solanum stoloniferum plants

Abstract

The green peach aphid, Myzus persicae Sulzer (Hemiptera: Aphididae) is one of the potato important pests; it is the most efficient vector of potato viruses. Myzus persicae harbors the endosymbiotic bacteria Buchnera aphidicola which supplements their diet. There is increasing evidence that B. aphidicola is involved in plant-aphid interactions and we previously demonstrated that B. aphidicola disruption (aposymbiosis) affected the probing behavior of M. persicae on radish plants, delaying host plant acceptance. In this work, we evaluated the effect of aposymbiosis on the probing behavior of M. persicae on 2 Solanum species with different compatibility with M. persicae, Solanum tuberosum (susceptible) and Solanum stoloniferum (resistant) with the electrical penetration graph technique (EPG). To disrupt B. aphidicola, rifampicin was administered to aphids through artificial diets. Aposymbiotic aphids, on both plant species, showed increased pathway activities, mechanical problems with the stylets, and delayed salivation in the phloem. The extended time in derailed stylet mechanics affected the occurrence of most other probing activities; it delayed the time to the first phloem phase and prevented ingestion from the phloem. The effect of aposymbiosis was more evident in the compatible interaction of M. persicae-S. tuberosum, than in the incompatible interaction with S. stoloniferum, which generated the M. persicae-S. tuberosum interaction to become incompatible. These results confirm that B. aphidicola is involved in the plant-aphid interaction in relation to plant acceptance, presumably through a role in stylets penetration in the plant.

Defence gene expression and phloem quality contribute to mesophyll and phloem resistance to aphids in wild barley

“…Screening of wild relatives in wheat (Xu et al, 2015;Aradottir et al, 2017) and maize (Maag et al, 2015) has identified partial-resistance traits associated with reduced palatability and elevated levels of secondary metabolites (Barria et al, 1992;Ahmad et al, 2011;Greenslade et al, 2016;Chandrasekhar et al, 2018;Li et al, 2018). In crops such as wheat, maize, potato, and tomato, partial-resistance has been associated with both singular and interacting epidermal-mesophyll-and phloem-based resistance factors (Alvarez et al, 2006;Greenslade et al, 2016;Machado-Assefh and Alvarez, 2018). The underlying mechanisms of these resistances can involve factors based at the leaf epidermis such as leaf trichomes (Glas et al, 2012) and waxes (Tsumuki et al, 1989;Agrawal et al, 2009), factors residing in the leaf tissue such as allelochemicals (Ahmad et al, 2011;Betsiashvili et al, 2015), elevated phytohomone signalling (Louis et al, 2015), and elevated defence gene expression (Zhai et al, 2017), as well as phloem-based factors:, including reduced phloem quality (Greenslade et al, 2016).…”

The probing behaviour of the planthopper Delphacodes kuscheli (Hemiptera: Delphacidae) on two alternating hosts, maize and oat

“…The electrical penetration graph (EPG) method constitutes a robust tool to study the feeding behaviour of sap feeders; this technique, introduced by McLean and Kinsey (1964) and further improved by Tjallingii (1978), has long been used to study the plant-insect interaction at the plant tissue level. This technique has been used to test host suitability or resistance and the transmission mechanisms of plant pathogens mainly in aphids (Alvarez et al 2006(Alvarez et al , 2013Machado-Assefh & Alvarez 2018), leafhoppers (Carpane et al 2011;Backus et al 2015;Roddee et al 2017) and other sap-sucking hemipterans such as mirids (Backus et al 2007), whiteflies (Jhonson & Walker 1999;Lu et al 2017) and psyllids (Bonani et al 2010). Once the insect penetrates the plant tissues, the circuit is closed and electrical changes are recorded and correlated with the activities of the feeding behaviour (Tjallingii 1988).…”

“…Once the insect penetrates the plant tissues, the circuit is closed and electrical changes are recorded and correlated with the activities of the feeding behaviour (Tjallingii 1988). This technique has been used to test host suitability or resistance and the transmission mechanisms of plant pathogens mainly in aphids (Alvarez et al 2006(Alvarez et al , 2013Machado-Assefh & Alvarez 2018), leafhoppers (Carpane et al 2011;Backus et al 2015;Roddee et al 2017) and other sap-sucking hemipterans such as mirids (Backus et al 2007), whiteflies (Jhonson & Walker 1999;Lu et al 2017) and psyllids (Bonani et al 2010). Among planthoppers of the Delphacidae family, the EPG technique has widely been used to study the feeding behaviour of important pests of rice (Oryza sativa L.) in Asia: Nilaparvata lugens (Stål) (Kimmins 1989;Hattori 2001;Seo et al 2009;Ghaffar et al 2011), Sogatella furcifera (Horváth) (Lei et al 2016;Li et al 2016), Laodelphax striatellus Fallén (Seo et al 2016) and one pest of maize, Peregrinus maidis (Ashmead), in tropical and subtropical areas (Buduca et al 1996;Reynaud et al 2004).…”

Effects of Aphidius gifuensis on the feeding behavior and potato virus Y transmission ability of Myzus persicae

“…Proteins in aphid saliva play an important role in feeding activities, countering sieve plate occlusion, and for some species, resistance factors in plants (Will & van Bel, ; Hogenhout et al ., ). The disruption of the symbiosis of M. persicae with Buchnera aphidicola negatively affects the feeding behavior producing changes on it physiology, which leads to impeding host plant acceptance (Machado‐Assefh & Alvarez, ). In the present study, the contribution of E1 to the phloem phase (%) in parasitized aphids changed significantly (Table , variable 12).…”