Journal ArticleDOI
Facultative Symbionts in Aphids and the Horizontal Transfer of Ecologically Important Traits
TLDR
Experiments on pea aphids have demonstrated that facultative symbionts protect against entomopathogenic fungi and parasitoid wasps, ameliorate the detrimental effects of heat, and influence host plant suitability.Abstract:
Aphids engage in symbiotic associations with a diverse assemblage of heritable bacteria. In addition to their obligate nutrient-provisioning symbiont, Buchnera aphidicola, aphids may also carry one or more facultative symbionts. Unlike obligate symbionts, facultative symbionts are not generally required for survival or reproduction and can invade novel hosts, based on both phylogenetic analyses and transfection experiments. Facultative symbionts are mutualistic in the context of various ecological interactions. Experiments on pea aphids (Acyrthosiphon pisum) have demonstrated that facultative symbionts protect against entomopathogenic fungi and parasitoid wasps, ameliorate the detrimental effects of heat, and influence host plant suitability. The protective symbiont, Hamiltonella defensa, has a dynamic genome, exhibiting evidence of recombination, phage-mediated gene uptake, and horizontal gene transfer and containing virulence and toxin-encoding genes. Although transmitted maternally with high fidelity, facultative symbionts occasionally move horizontally within and between species, resulting in the instantaneous acquisition of ecologically important traits, such as parasitoid defense.read more
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Journal ArticleDOI
The Intracellular Bacterium Wolbachia Uses Parasitoid Wasps as Phoretic Vectors for Efficient Horizontal Transmission
Muhammad Z. Ahmed,Shao-Jian Li,Xia Xue,Xiang-Jie Yin,Shunxiang Ren,Francis M. Jiggins,Jaco M. Greeff,Bao-Li Qiu +7 more
TL;DR: Evidence is provided for the horizontal transmission of Wolbachia between insect hosts by parasitic wasps, and the enhanced survival and reproductive abilities of insect hosts may adversely affect biological control programs.
Journal ArticleDOI
Insect life history and the evolution of bacterial mutualism.
TL;DR: It is found that aphid species that have mutualistic associations with ants that protect them from natural enemies are less likely to carry symbionts that provide similar benefits, and one symbiont species occurs more frequently in unrelated aphids that specialise on certain plant genera.
Journal ArticleDOI
Effects of bacterial secondary symbionts on host plant use in pea aphids
TL;DR: Fitness consequences of introducing different strains of the symbiont Hamiltonella defensa into three aphid clones collected on Lathyrus pratensis, and the results provide no evidence that secondary symbionts have a major direct role in facilitating aphid utilization of particular host plant species.
Journal ArticleDOI
Defensive microbial symbionts in Hymenoptera
Martin Kaltenpoth,Tobias Engl +1 more
TL;DR: A detailed understanding of the host's natural history is indispensable for elucidating the fitness benefits of the symbionts and the molecular basis of symbiont-conferred protection.
Journal ArticleDOI
Large-scale label-free quantitative proteomics of the pea aphid-Buchnera symbiosis
Anton Poliakov,Calum W. Russell,Lalit Ponnala,Harold J. Hoops,Qi Sun,Angela E. Douglas,Klaas J. van Wijk +6 more
TL;DR: This is the first quantitative proteome analysis of bacteriocyte symbiosis, providing a wealth of information about molecular function of both the host cell and bacterial symbiont.
References
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Book
Parasitoids: Behavioral and Evolutionary Ecology
TL;DR: This book synthesizes the work of both schools of parasitoid biology and asks how a consideration of evolutionary biology can help to understand the behavior, ecology, and diversity of the approximately one to two million species of Parasitoids found on earth.
Journal ArticleDOI
Genomics and Evolution of Heritable Bacterial Symbionts
TL;DR: Insect heritable symbionts provide some of the extremes of cellular genomes, including the smallest and the fastest evolving, raising new questions about the limits of evolution of life.
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Evolution of sex determining mechanisms
TL;DR: Books, as a source that may involve the facts, opinion, literature, religion, and many others are the great friends to join with.
Journal ArticleDOI
Type III Secretion Machines: Bacterial Devices for Protein Delivery into Host Cells
Jorge E. Galán,Alan Collmer +1 more
TL;DR: Several Gram-negative pathogenic bacteria have evolved a complex protein secretion system termed type III to deliver bacterial effector proteins into host cells that then modulate host cellular functions.