Entomology Commons^™

Bacterial Symbionts, Buchnera, And Starvation On Wing Dimorphism In English Grain Aphid, Sitobion Avenae (F.) (Homoptera: Aphididae), Fangmei Zhang, Xiangrui Li, Yunhui Zhang, Brad Coates, Xuguo Joe Zhou, Dengfa Cheng

Entomology Faculty Publications

Wing dimorphism in aphids can be affected by multiple cues, including both biotic (nutrition, crowding, interspecific interactions, the presence of natural enemies, maternal and transgenerational effects, and alarm pheromone) and abiotic factors (temperature, humidity, and photoperiod). The majority of the phloem-feeding aphids carry Buchnera, an obligate symbiotic proteobacteria. Buchnera has a highly reduced genome size, but encode key enzymes in the tryptophan biosynthetic pathway and is crucial for nutritional balance, development and reproduction in aphids. In this study, we investigated the impact of two nutritional-based biotic factors, symbionts and starvation, on the wing dimorphism in the English grain aphid, …