Bacterial communities in natural versus pesticide‐treated Aphis gossypii populations in North China

Abstract

The cotton-melon aphid, Aphis gossypii Glover, is a worldwide-spreading species, and pesticide-resistant populations are increasing rapidly. In this study, investigations were performed based on Illumina HiSeq sequencing of the 16S rDNA V4 region for the bacterial communities embodied as intracellular symbionts under natural and in pesticide-treated populations of A. gossypii. The results revealed that more than 82% of bacterial communities belonged to the phylum Proteobacteria in which the maximum proportion (53.24%) was of the genus Arsenophonus; Hamiltonella composed 22.31; and 1.37% was of the genus Acinetobacter. The relative abundance of Hamiltonella was obvious, vertically transmitted, divided into two groups, and its infection influenced the bacterial communities in A. gossypii. Symbiont density and composition were changed in samples tested on different days. Azadirachtin and phoxim influenced on the composition of bacterial communities. Different biomarkers were used for pesticide-treated samples with LEfSe results. These findings will increase awareness regarding bacterial communities in naturally occurring populations of A. gossypii and pave the way to study the relationship between symbionts and pesticide resistance.

The Bacterial Flora Associated with the Polyphagous Aphid Aphis gossypii Glover (Hemiptera: Aphididae) Is Strongly Affected by Host Plants

“…Spiroplasma had extremely low relative abundance (< 0.005%) in two aphid samples, which may explain why it was not found before. The defensive symbiont Hamiltonella defensa was reported to infect all A. gossypii samples examined by Zhao et al [74], Ayoubi et al [77], and Zhang et al [76]. However, in our study, it was just carried by six samples at very low abundance (< 0.005%).…”

“…Out of the top ten abundant genera, three were symbiotic bacteria, namely, Buchnera, Arsenophonus, and Rickettsia (Table S3). The third most abundant, Acinetobacter, has been reported in A. gossypii [73,75,76] and is common in insect gut communities [94,95]. Many other bacteria detected here could be environmental or transient taxa.…”

“…Zhao et al [74] also found distinct bacterial community structures from different geographic populations feeding on Bt cotton in northern China. A. gossypii is currently controlled primarily by insecticides, which have been reported to influence the bacterial communities associated with aphids [75,76]. In addition, by utilizing quantitative PCR, Ayoubi et al [77] uncovered development-associated dynamics in the abundance of symbionts within A. gossypii.…”

Facultative symbionts associated with aphid populations in citrus orchards in northern Tunisia

“…We recorded similar percentage infections of A. gossypii and A. spiraecola with S. symbiotica and R. insecticola, but the percentage infection of these aphids with Arsenophonus differed. In A. gossypii populations, the prevalence of Arsenophonus was around 75%, which is similar to that recorded in other studies (Jones et al, 2011;Zhao et al, 2016;Ayoubi et al, 2018;Zhang et al, 2018).…”

“…Multiple infections by facultative symbionts are mostly reported for the pea aphid A. pisum (Leonardo & Muiru, 2003;Oliver et al, 2006;Nyabuga et al, 2010;Ferrari et al, 2012;Henry et al, 2013;Russell et al, 2013). The reports for the genus Aphis are confl icting as A. fabae, A. craccivora and A. gossypii are rarely reported hosting more than one facultative symbiont (Chandler et al, 2008;Najar-Rodríguez et al, 2009;Brady et al, 2014;Henry et al, 2015;Zhao et al, 2016;Zhang et al, 2018) whereas one individual of the black bean aphid A. fabae can harbour up to four different symbionts (Zytynska et al, 2015). Our results are consistent with the latter study and indicate that multiple infections by different symbionts are probably less rare in the genus Aphis than previously thought.…”