Morphological and molecular characterization of a sexually reproducing colony of the booklouse Liposcelis bostrychophila (Psocodea: Liposcelididae) found in Arizona.

Václav Stejskal,Steve J Perlman,Renfu Shao,Zuzana Kučerová,George P Opit,Edward L Mockford,Qianqian Yang,Adi Behar,Wyatt E Robinson,Zhihong Li

doi:10.1038/srep10429

Abstract

The booklouse, Liposcelis bostrychophila, is a worldwide pest of stored products. For decades, only thelytokous parthenogenetic reproduction was documented in L. bostrychophila. Male L. bostrychophila were first found in Hawaii in 2002. In 2009, a sexual strain was found in Arizona. We examined the morphology of both males and females of the Arizona strain and compared the Arizona sexual strain with the Hawaii sexual strain and the parthenogenetic strains of L. bostrychophila. The sexual and parthenogenetic strains show some differences in eye morphology. To examine the relationship between sexual and asexual lineages, we sequenced the mitochondrial 12S and 16S ribosomal RNA genes of males and females from the Arizona strain. Phylogenetic analyses of L. bostrychophila individuals revealed that: 1) the sexually reproducing colony found in Arizona contains two closely related mitochondrial DNA haplotypes – one present in only females and the other in both males and females; and 2) the Arizona sexual strain was most closely related to a parthenogenetic strain in Illinois. We detected Rickettsia in all of the parthenogenetic individuals we checked but not in any Arizona sexual individuals. Further evidence is required to establish whether the presence of Rickettsia is linked to asexual reproduction in Liposcelis.

Highlights

The booklouse, Liposcelis bostrychophila, is a worldwide pest of stored products
The compound eyes of females consist of seven ommatidia with two oval ones with granulated surfaces and five round ones with smooth surfaces, whereas those of males consist of five ommatidia with two oval ones with granulated surfaces and three round ones with smooth surfaces
The discovery of sexually reproducing L. bostrychophila in Arizona confirmed that both sexual and parthenogenetic reproduction modes exist in this species

Summary

Introduction

The booklouse, Liposcelis bostrychophila, is a worldwide pest of stored products. For decades, only thelytokous parthenogenetic reproduction was documented in L. bostrychophila. We examined the morphology of both males and females of the Arizona strain and compared the Arizona sexual strain with the Hawaii sexual strain and the parthenogenetic strains of L. bostrychophila. To examine the relationship between sexual and asexual lineages, we sequenced the mitochondrial 12S and 16S ribosomal RNA genes of males and females from the Arizona strain. In 2009, two of our authors (E.L.M and A.B., unpublished data) found a sexually reproducing colony of L. bostrychophila in Arizona, USA, and succeeded in establishing a lab colony. We used morphological and molecular approaches to examine the relationship between sexual and asexual (parthenogenetic) strains of L. bostrychophila. We screened male and female individuals of the Arizona colony and nine parthenogenetic strains of L. bostrychophila for Rickettsia

Methods

Results

Conclusion