Affiliation:
1. Key Laboratory of Entomology and Pest Control Engineering, College of Plant Protection Southwest University Chongqing China
2. International Joint Laboratory of China‐Belgium on Sustainable Crop Pest Control Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Southwest University Chongqing China
3. Key Laboratory of Agricultural Biosafety and Green Production of Upper Yangtze River Southwest University Chongqing China
Abstract
AbstractAphids, the important global agricultural pests, harbor abundant resources of symbionts that can improve the host adaptability to environmental conditions, also control the interactions between host aphid and natural enemy, resulting in a significant decrease in efficiency of biological control. The facultative symbiont Serratia symbiotica has a strong symbiotic association with its aphid hosts, a relationship that is known to interfere with host–parasitoid interactions. We hypothesized that Serratia may also influence other trophic interactions by interfering with the physiology and behavior of major predators to provide host aphid defense. To test this hypothesis, we investigated the effects of Serratia on the host aphid Acyrthosiphon pisum and its predator, the ladybeetle Propylaea japonica. First, the prevalence of Serratia in different A. pisum colonies was confirmed by amplicon sequencing. We then showed that harboring Serratia improved host aphid growth and fecundity but reduced longevity. Finally, our research demonstrated that Serratia defends aphids against P. japonica by impeding the predator's development and predation capacity, and modulating its foraging behavior. Our findings reveal that facultative symbiont Serratia improves aphid fitness by disrupting the predation strategy of ladybeetle larvae, offering new insight into the interactions between aphids and their predators, and providing the basis of a new biological control strategy for aphid pests involving the targeting of endosymbionts.
Funder
National Natural Science Foundation of China
Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities
Subject
Insect Science,General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology,Agronomy and Crop Science,Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics