Abstract
The two-spotted spider mite, Tetranychus urticae Koch (Acari: Tetranychidae), is one of the most polyphagous herbivores feeding on cell contents of over 1100 plant species including more than 150 crops. It is being established as a model for chelicerate herbivores with tools that enable tracking of reciprocal responses in plant-spider mite interactions. However, despite their important pest status and a growing understanding of the molecular basis of interactions with plant hosts, knowledge of the way mites interface with the plant while feeding and the plant damage directly inflicted by mites is lacking. Here, utilizing histology and microscopy methods, we uncovered several key features of T. urticae feeding. By following the stylet path within the plant tissue, we determined that the stylet penetrates the leaf either in between epidermal pavement cells or through a stomatal opening, without damaging the epidermal cellular layer. Our recordings of mite feeding established that duration of the feeding event ranges from several minutes to more than half an hour, during which time mites consume a single mesophyll cell in a pattern that is common to both bean and Arabidopsis plant hosts. In addition, this study determined that leaf chlorotic spots, a common symptom of mite herbivory, do not form as an immediate consequence of mite feeding. Our results establish a cellular context for the plant-spider mite interaction that will support our understanding of the molecular mechanisms and cell signaling associated with spider mite feeding.
Highlights
The chelicerates are the second largest arthropod group comprising of horseshoe crabs, scorpions, spiders, mites, and ticks (Brusca and Brusca, 2003)
To estimate the amount of time that spider mites spend at a feeding site, mites were first starved for 12 h and 10 female mites were placed on either bean or Arabidopsis leaf disk of 1.5 cm in diameter
The whole feeding event of this mite is shown in Supplemental Movie S3, which captures the mite feeding for over 12 min
Summary
The chelicerates are the second largest arthropod group comprising of horseshoe crabs, scorpions, spiders, mites, and ticks (Brusca and Brusca, 2003). Scorpions and spiders are predators that use pre-oral digestion as a shared digestive strategy These organisms secret digestive enzymes, originating from the midgut, into their prey to aid in the pre-oral digestion and liquefaction of prey tissues before ingestion by morphologically diverse mouthparts (Cohen, 1995). Spider Mite Feeding over 40,000 identified species This group exhibits a plethora of different lifestyles ranging from parasitic to predatory to plant-feeding. Predatory Acari, similar to other chelicerate predators, utilize secreted proteins to facilitate the consumption of their prey. These digestive enzymes originate from salivary secretions rather than from the midgut (Cohen, 1995). Eriophyoid mites penetrate their stylets into the plant tissue by telescoping the palpal tissue that surrounds the stylet bundle (Krantz and Lindquist, 1979)
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