Journal
BIOLOGY LETTERS
Volume 8, Issue 4, Pages 613-615Publisher
ROYAL SOC
DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2012.0144
Keywords
Aphis fabae; bacterial endosymbiont; horizontal transmission; maternal transmission; parasitoid; vector
Categories
Funding
- Swiss National Science Foundation [109266, 123376]
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Heritable bacterial endosymbionts play an important role in aphid ecology. Sequence-based evidence suggests that facultative symbionts such as Hamiltonella defensa or Regiella insecticola also undergo horizontal transmission. Other than through male-to-female transfer during the sexual generation in autumn, the routes by which this occurs remain largely unknown. Here, we tested if parasitoids or ectoparasitic mites can act as vectors for horizontal transfer of facultative symbionts. Using symbiont-specific primers for diagnostic PCR, we demonstrate for the first time, to our knowledge, that parasitoids can indeed transfer H. defensa and R. insecticola by sequentially stabbing infected and uninfected individuals of their host, Aphis fabae, establishing new, heritable infections. Thus, a natural route of horizontal symbiont transmission is also available during the many clonal generations of the aphid life cycle. No transmissions by ectoparasiticmites were observed, nor did parasitoids that emerged from symbiont-infected aphids transfer any symbionts in our experiments.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available