Variable impacts of prevalent bacterial symbionts on a parasitoid used to control aphid pests of protected crops

Postic, Estelle; Ralec, Anne Le; Buchard, Christelle; Granado, C.; Outreman, Yannick

doi:10.1016/j.biocontrol.2020.104302

Cited by 10 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 67 publications

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“…solani are two of the most economically important and problematic pest species in many crops worldwide (Jandricic et al, 2010;van Emden & Harrington, 2017). Our results add to the evidence that secondary endosymbionts rarely occur in these aphid species (Gallo-Franco et al, 2019;Henry et al, 2015;Postic et al, 2020).…”

Section: Endosymbiontssupporting

confidence: 86%

“…Because we used both diagnostic PCR on 1312 aphid colonies, and whole microbiome sequencing using universal primers on 287 of these samples, we are confident that if any currently known secondary endosymbionts would have been present in these greenhouses, we would have detected them. In other studies on these aphid species, secondary endosymbionts are also rarely or never detected (Gallo‐Franco et al, 2019 ; Henry et al, 2015 ; Postic et al, 2020 ; Singh et al, 2021 ). However, since the aphid species that dominate pepper crops are likely different in other countries, our results cannot be automatically extrapolated to sweet pepper crops around the world.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 91%

“…A previous study that focused on the effects of endosymbionts on aphid–parasitoid dynamics in a greenhouse crop was recently published by Postic et al ( 2020 ). They showed that in French greenhouse strawberry crops, one of the most common aphids on strawberries, Acyrthosiphon malvae rogersii (Theobald), often carried H .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Do aphids in Dutch sweet pepper greenhouses carry heritable elements that protect them against biocontrol parasitoids?

Beekman

Donner

Litjens

et al. 2022

Evolutionary Applications

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Biological control (biocontrol) of crop pests is a sustainable alternative to the use of biodiversity and organismal health‐harming chemical pesticides. Aphids can be biologically controlled with parasitoid wasps; however, variable results of parasitoid‐based aphid biocontrol in greenhouses are reported. Aphids may display genetically encoded (endogenous) defences that increase aphid resistance against parasitoids as under high parasitoid pressure there will be selection for parasitoid‐resistant aphids, potentially affecting the success of parasitoid‐based aphid biocontrol in greenhouses. Additionally, aphids may carry secondary bacterial endosymbionts that protect them against parasitoids. We studied whether there is variation in either of these heritable elements in aphids in greenhouses of sweet pepper, an agro‐economically important crop in the Netherlands that is prone to aphid pests and where pest management heavily relies on biocontrol. We sampled aphid populations in organic (biocontrol only) and conventional (biocontrol and pesticides) sweet pepper greenhouses in the Netherlands during the 2019 crop growth season. We assessed the aphid microbiome through both diagnostic PCR and 16S rRNA sequencing and did not detect any secondary endosymbionts in the two most encountered aphid species, Myzus persicae and Aulacorthum solani. We also compared multiple aphid lines collected from different greenhouses for variation in levels of endogenous‐based resistance against the parasitoids commonly used as biocontrol agents. We found no differences in the levels of endogenous‐based resistance between different aphid lines. This study does not support the hypothesis that protective endosymbionts or the presence of endogenous resistant aphid lines affects the success of parasitoid‐based biocontrol of aphids in Dutch greenhouses. Future investigations will need to address what is causing the variable successes of aphid biocontrol and what (biological and management‐related) lessons can be learned for aphid control in other crops, and biocontrol in general.

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Section: Endosymbiontssupporting

confidence: 86%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 91%

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Do aphids in Dutch sweet pepper greenhouses carry heritable elements that protect them against biocontrol parasitoids?

Beekman

Donner

Litjens

et al. 2022

Evolutionary Applications

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“…While aphid endosymbionts have often been studied in the laboratory and sometimes in agricultural settings (Beekman et al, 2022; Postic et al, 2020; Ye et al, 2018), data from field studies are still limited for most countries. While our results clearly show that many aphid species can carry facultative endosymbionts, little is known about their effects on their hosts for the majority of these aphid–endosymbiont combinations.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Aphid populations are frequently infected with facultative endosymbionts

Donner,

Slingerland,

Beekman

et al. 2024

Environmental Microbiology

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The occurrence of facultative endosymbionts has been studied in many commercially important crop pest aphids, but their occurrence and effects in non‐commercial aphid species in natural populations have received less attention. We screened 437 aphid samples belonging to 106 aphid species for the eight most common facultative aphid endosymbionts. We found one or more facultative endosymbionts in 53% (56 of 106) of the species investigated. This likely underestimates the situation in the field because facultative endosymbionts are often present in only some colonies of an aphid species. Oligophagous aphid species carried facultative endosymbionts significantly more often than monophagous species. We did not find a significant correlation between ant tending and facultative endosymbiont presence. In conclusion, we found that facultative endosymbionts are common among aphid populations. This study is, to our knowledge, the first of its kind in the Netherlands and provides a basis for future research in this field. For instance, it is still unknown in what way many of these endosymbionts affect their hosts, which is important for determining the importance of facultative endosymbionts to community dynamics.

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“…It has been shown that A . malvae from strawberry crops infected with the bacterial symbiont Hamiltonella defensa were resistant to commercial parasitoids [ 63 ]. However, experimental evolution experiments showed that A .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Genetics of wild and mass-reared populations of a generalist aphid parasitoid and improvement of biological control

et al. 2021

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Due to their ability to parasitize various insect species, generalist parasitoids are widely used as biological control agents. They can be mass-reared and released in agroecosystems to control several pest species in various crops. However, the existence of genetic differentiation among populations of generalist parasitoid species is increasingly recognized and this can be associated with an adaptation to local conditions or to a reduced range of host species. Moreover, constraints of mass-rearing conditions can alter genetic variation within parasitoid populations released. These features could be associated with a reduced efficiency of the control of targeted pest species. Here, we focused on strawberry greenhouses where the control of aphids with the generalist parasitoid Aphidius ervi appears to be inefficient. We investigated whether this inefficiency may have both genetic and ecological bases comparing wild and commercial populations of A. ervi. We used two complementary genetic approaches: one based on the mitochondrial marker COI and one based on microsatellite markers. COI analysis showed a genetic differentiation within the A. ervi species, but the structure was neither associated with the commercial/wild status nor with host species factors. On the other hand, using microsatellite markers, we showed a genetic differentiation between commercial and wild A. ervi populations associated with a loss of genetic diversity within the mass-reared populations. Our ecological genetics study may potentially explain the weak efficiency of biological control of aphids in protected strawberry crops and enable to provide some insights to improve biological control.

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Variable impacts of prevalent bacterial symbionts on a parasitoid used to control aphid pests of protected crops

Cited by 10 publications

References 67 publications

Do aphids in Dutch sweet pepper greenhouses carry heritable elements that protect them against biocontrol parasitoids?

Do aphids in Dutch sweet pepper greenhouses carry heritable elements that protect them against biocontrol parasitoids?

Aphid populations are frequently infected with facultative endosymbionts

Genetics of wild and mass-reared populations of a generalist aphid parasitoid and improvement of biological control

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