Identification of aphid salivary proteins:: a proteomic investigation of Myzus persicae

The role of insect saliva in the first contact between an insect and a plant is crucial during feeding. Some elicitors, particularly in insect regurgitants, have been identified as inducing plant defence reactions. Here, we focused on the salivary proteome of the green peach aphid, Myzus persicae. Proteins were either directly in-solution digested or were separated by 2D SDS-PAGE before trypsin digestion. Resulting peptides were then identified by mass spectrometry coupled with database investigations. A homemade database was constituted of expressed sequence tags from the pea aphid Acyrtosiphon pisum and M. persicae. The databases were used to identify proteins related to M. persicae with a nonsequenced genome. This procedure enabled us to discover glucose oxidase, glucose dehydrogenase, NADH dehydrogenase, alpha-glucosidase and alpha-amylase in M. persicae saliva. The presence of these enzymes is discussed in terms of plant-aphid interactions.