Affiliation:
1. Plant Cell Biology Research Group, Institute of General Botany, Justus-Liebig-University, Senckenbergstraße 17-21, D-35390 Gießen, Germany
Abstract
SUMMARY
The ability of aphids to detect and find sieve tubes suggests that aphids receive cues for sieve-tube recognition by taking samples. Specific natural conditions such as pH value, sugar species and concentration, viscosity, and oxygen pressure may enable sieve-tube detection. We tested the preference of Megoura viciae and Myzus persicae for potential plant-borne orientation parameters in artificial choice-chamber systems. Both species preferred sucrose (in comparison with fructose, glucose, raffinose or sorbitol) at concentrations of 15–22.5% (over a tested range of 0–22.5%) and at approximately pH 7 (over a tested range of pH 5–8). This preference matches the composition of the sieve-tube sap of their host plants. Likewise, Rhopalosiphum padi (normally found on barley plants with sucrose in the phloem sap) and Macrosiphum euphorbiae (normally found on pumpkin plants with raffinose-family oligosaccharides in the phloem sap) showed a significant preference for sucrose. In the absence of sucrose, however, M. euphorbiae strongly preferred raffinose. No clear preference for any carbohydrate was observed for Macrosiphum rosae and Aphis pomi (both normally found on plants with various amounts of sorbitol in the phloem sap). Electrical penetration graph (EPG) measurements of M. persicae feeding on artificial diets confirmed that sieve tubes are recognized solely by a combination of carbohydrate abundance and a neutral to slightly alkaline pH.
Publisher
The Company of Biologists
Subject
Insect Science,Molecular Biology,Animal Science and Zoology,Aquatic Science,Physiology,Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
Cited by
61 articles.
订阅此论文施引文献
订阅此论文施引文献,注册后可以免费订阅5篇论文的施引文献,订阅后可以查看论文全部施引文献