Abstract
Monitoring the ability of bacterial plant pathogens to survive in insects is required for elucidating unknown aspects of their epidemiology and for designing appropriate control strategies. Erwinia amylovora is a plant pathogenic bacterium that causes fire blight, a devastating disease in apple and pear commercial orchards. Studies on fire blight spread by insects have mainly focused on pollinating agents, such as honeybees. However, the Mediterranean fruit fly (medfly) Ceratitis capitata (Diptera: Tephritidae), one of the most damaging fruit pests worldwide, is also common in pome fruit orchards. The main objective of the study was to investigate whether E. amylovora can survive and be transmitted by the medfly. Our experimental results show: i) E. amylovora can survive for at least 8 days inside the digestive tract of the medfly and until 28 days on its external surface, and ii) medflies are able to transmit the bacteria from inoculated apples to both detached shoots and pear plants, being the pathogen recovered from lesions in both cases. This is the first report on E. amylovora internalization and survival in/on C. capitata, as well as the experimental transmission of the fire blight pathogen by this insect. Our results suggest that medfly can act as a potential vector for E. amylovora, and expand our knowledge on the possible role of these and other insects in its life cycle.
Highlights
Phytopathogenic bacteria cause annually very important losses in major crops and fruit trees, producing serious economical damage
Green-fluorescent transformants were used to monitor the Medfly as a Potential Vector of Erwinia amylovora bacteria on external surfaces of flies, while red-fluorescent ones were used to monitor them inside the insects, since in the preliminary experiments it was observed that fly tissues show a green fluorescence interfering with that of green fluorescent protein (GFP)-bacteria
Colonies of E. amylovora were distinguishable on CCT and RESC media from native bacteria of the medflies, such as Serratia marcescens and Providencia rettgeri, identified by partial 16S ribosomal DNA sequencing
Summary
Phytopathogenic bacteria cause annually very important losses in major crops and fruit trees, producing serious economical damage. Epidemiological studies have been mostly focused on plant-pathogen interactions, excluding the role of other organisms in disease dissemination. Insects are often neglected as ecological players, but many plant diseases become more severe and detrimental in the presence of specific or nonspecific insect vectors that spread the pathogen to new hosts [1]. There is a trend to investigate plant diseases at a community. As a Potential Vector of Erwinia amylovora. European Social Fund, BSM EMN; Grant FPU of Spanish Ministry of Education and Science, RDS
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