Wolbachia, Spiroplasma, and Rickettsia symbiotic bacteria in aphids (Aphidoidea)

Abstract

Aphids are a diverse family of crop pests. Aphids formed a complex relationship with intracellular bacteria. Depending on the region of study, the species composition of both aphids and their facultative endosymbionts varies. The aim of the work was to determine the occurrence and genetic diversity of Wolbachia, Spiroplasma and Rickettsia symbionts in aphids collected in 2018–2019 in Moscow. For these purposes, 578 aphids from 32 collection sites were tested by PCR using specific primers. At least 21 species of aphids from 14 genera and four families were identified by barcoding method, of which 11 species were infected with endosymbionts. Rickettsia was found in six species, Wolbachia in two species, Spiroplasma in one species. The presence of Rickettsia in Impatientinum asiaticum, Myzus cerasi, Hyalopterus pruni, Eucallipterus tiliae, Chaitophorus tremulae and Wolbachia in Aphis pomi and C. tremulae has been described for the first time. A double infection with Rickettsia and Spiroplasma was detected in a half of pea aphid (Acyrthosiphon pisum) individuals. For the first time was found that six species of aphids are infected with Rickettsia that are genetically different from previously known. It was first discovered that A. pomi is infected with two Wolbachia strains, one of which belongs to supergroup B and is genetically close to Wolbachia from C. tremulae. The second Wolbachia strain from A. pomi belongs to the supergroup M, recently described in aphid species. Spiroplasma, which we observed in A. pisum, is genetically close to male killing Spiroplasma from aphids, ladybirds and moths. Both maternal inheritance and horizontal transmission are the pathways for the distribution of facultative endosymbiotic bacteria in aphids.

Involvement of Microbiota in Insect Physiology: Focus on B Vitamins

“…Spiroplasma, Rickettsia, Erwinia and Wolbachia, but their colonization success related to reproductive manipulation rather than to nutritional mutualism (Romanov et al, 2020). In contrast, some planthoppers harbor mutualist Wolbachia; as mentioned above for bedbugs, Wolbachia is present in a bacteriocyte and cured immatures have a limited ability to reach adulthood unless receiving riboflavin and biotin supplements (Hosokawa et al, 2010;Kaur et al, 2021;Moriyama et al, 2015;Nikoh et al, 2014).…”

Spiroplasma as facultative bacterial symbionts of stinkbugs

“…Notably, no stinkbug species exhibited 100% infection with Spiroplasma in this study (Supplementary Figure S1C). To our knowledge, no Spiroplasma symbionts have been reported to exhibit 100% infection rates in natural arthropod populations (Duron et al, 2008;Watts et al, 2009;Anbutsu and Fukatsu, 2011;Romanov et al, 2020). These observations suggest the possibility that, although speculative, Spiroplasma might be inherently unlikely to evolve essential mutualism with arthropod hosts.…”

“…Thus far, Spiroplasma infections have been detected from diverse insects and other arthropods, plants, and some marine invertebrates (Anbutsu and Fukatsu, 2011;Ballinger and Perlman, 2019;Gasparich et al, 2020), but large-scale data of infection prevalence in natural host populations have been reported only in a few cases. To our knowledge, 10/136 (7.4%) species and 76/2052 (3.7%) individuals of diverse arthropods (Duron et al, 2008), 6/19 (31.6%) species and 284/2907 (9.8%) individuals of fruit flies (Watts et al, 2009), and 1/21 (11.3%) species and 24/566 (4.2%) individuals of aphids (Romanov et al, 2020) Here it should be noted that the low detection rates of Spiroplasma in field-collected stinkbugs may entail underestimation for the following reasons. (i) Limited sample size: Since a limited number of samples, often a single specimen, were examined for each host species, Spiroplasma infections at low levels in natural host populations may be frequently overlooked.…”

Insight into the bacterial communities of the subterranean aphid Anoecia corni

“…[8,9], Regiella insecticola [10,11], Serratia symbiotica [12,13], Hamiltonella defensa [14,15], Rickettsiella viridis [16,17] and Candidatus Fukatsuia symbiotica [18,19]], α-proteobacteria [e.g. the genus Rickettsia [20,21] and Wolbachia [22,23]] and Mollicutes of Spiroplasma genus [24,25]. Ecological effects associated with these bacterial partners include defense against parasites [26][27][28][29][30], body color modification [31,32], heat stress tolerance [33], host plant use and nutrition [34,35] and host reproductive manipulation [36].…”