TY - JOUR

T1 - Low prevalence of secondary endosymbionts in aphids sampled from rapeseed crops in Germany

AU - Manentzos, A. N.

AU - Melloh, P.

AU - Leybourne, D. J.

AU - Martin, E. A.

AU - Pahl, A. M. C.

N1 - Funding Information: DJL was supported by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation through a Postdoctoral Research Fellowship (ALAN) and The Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851 through a Research Fellowship (RF-2022-100004). This project received partial funding from the British Ecological Society through a large research grant to DJL and EAM (LRB20/1008). The authors would like to thank S Donner and M Beekman (Wageningen University & Research, The Netherlands) for kindly providing positive endosymbiont DNA samples.

PY - 2024/3/6

Y1 - 2024/3/6

N2 - Peach-potato aphids, Myzus persicae Sulzer (Hemiptera:Aphididae), and cabbage aphids, Brevicoryne brassicae Linnaeus (Hemiptera:Aphididae), are herbivorous insects of significant agricultural importance. Aphids can harbour a range of non-essential (facultative) endosymbiotic bacteria that confer multiple costs and benefits to the host aphid. A key endosymbiont-derived phenotype is protection against parasitoid wasps, and this protective phenotype has been associated with several defensive enodsymbionts. In recent years greater emphasis has been placed on developing alternative pest management strategies, including the increased use of natural enemies such as parasitoids wasps. For the success of aphid control strategies to be estimated the presence of defensive endosymbionts that can potentially disrupt the success of biocontrol agents needs to be determined in natural aphid populations. Here, we sampled aphids and mummies (parasitised aphids) from an important rapeseed production region in Germany and used multiplex PCR assays to characterise the endosymbiont communities. We found that aphids rarely harboured facultative endosymbionts, with 3.6% of M. persicae and 0% of B. brassicae populations forming facultative endosymbiont associations. This is comparable with endosymbiont prevalence described for M. persicae populations surveyed in Australia, Europe, Chile, and USA where endosymbiont infection frequencies range form 0-2%, but is in contrast with observations from China where M. persicae populations have more abundant and diverse endosymbiotic communities (endosymbionts present in over 50% of aphid populations).

AB - Peach-potato aphids, Myzus persicae Sulzer (Hemiptera:Aphididae), and cabbage aphids, Brevicoryne brassicae Linnaeus (Hemiptera:Aphididae), are herbivorous insects of significant agricultural importance. Aphids can harbour a range of non-essential (facultative) endosymbiotic bacteria that confer multiple costs and benefits to the host aphid. A key endosymbiont-derived phenotype is protection against parasitoid wasps, and this protective phenotype has been associated with several defensive enodsymbionts. In recent years greater emphasis has been placed on developing alternative pest management strategies, including the increased use of natural enemies such as parasitoids wasps. For the success of aphid control strategies to be estimated the presence of defensive endosymbionts that can potentially disrupt the success of biocontrol agents needs to be determined in natural aphid populations. Here, we sampled aphids and mummies (parasitised aphids) from an important rapeseed production region in Germany and used multiplex PCR assays to characterise the endosymbiont communities. We found that aphids rarely harboured facultative endosymbionts, with 3.6% of M. persicae and 0% of B. brassicae populations forming facultative endosymbiont associations. This is comparable with endosymbiont prevalence described for M. persicae populations surveyed in Australia, Europe, Chile, and USA where endosymbiont infection frequencies range form 0-2%, but is in contrast with observations from China where M. persicae populations have more abundant and diverse endosymbiotic communities (endosymbionts present in over 50% of aphid populations).

KW - aphid endosymbionts

KW - facultative endosymbiont

KW - Hamiltonella defensa

KW - insect symbionts

KW - Rickettsiella

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85187114374&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1017/S0007485324000063

DO - 10.1017/S0007485324000063

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85187114374

JO - Bulletin of Entomological Research

JF - Bulletin of Entomological Research

SN - 0007-4853

ER -