Abstract
Bacterial symbionts are broadly distributed among insects, influencing their bioecology to different degrees. Aphids carry a number of secondary symbionts that can influence aphid physiology and fitness attributes. Spiroplasma is seldom reported as an aphid symbiont, but a high level of infection has been observed in one population of the tropical aphid Aphis citricidus. We used sister isolines of Spiroplasma-infected (Ac-BS) and Spiroplasma-free (Ac-B) aphids reared on sweet orange (optimum host) and orange jasmine (suboptimum host) to demonstrate the effects of Spiroplasma infection in the aphid proteome profile. A higher number of proteins were differently abundant in aphids feeding on orange jasmine, indicating an impact of host plant quality. In both host plants, the majority of proteins affected by Spiroplasma infection were heat shock proteins, proteins linked to cell function and structure, and energy metabolism. Spiroplasma also induced changes in proteins involved in antimicrobial activity, carbohydrate processing and metabolism, amino acid synthesis and metabolism in aphids feeding on orange jasmine. We discuss on how the aphid host proteome is differentially affected by Spiroplasma infection when the host is exploiting host plants with different nutritional values.
Highlights
All multicellular animals have symbiotic microbes that establish biochemical and physiological interactions with their hosts
Proteomic analysis of A. citricidus using the Ultraflex II MALDI Mass Spectrometer and the Synapt G2 HDMS systems rendered the identification of several putative proteins, which are associated with stress response, energy metabolism, structural protein and other functional categories (Tables 1 and 2)
Two different heat shock proteins were identified from spot 699 from aphids reared on orange jasmine (Table 2), and a heat shock protein (262a) and an unchacterized protein (262b) were obtained from mass data analysis of spot 262 from aphids reared on sweet orange (Table 1)
Summary
All multicellular animals have symbiotic microbes that establish biochemical and physiological interactions with their hosts. Aphids are known to harbor their obligate symbiont Buchnera aphidicola[4,5], and yet be associated with several facultative symbionts[6,7,8,9,10]. Secondary symbionts have been related to host plant use in aphids, either by broadening or narrowing the insect host range[13,14]. Spiroplasma are known to be associated with at least 16 species of Drosophila, but the relationship of this symbiont with their Drosophila hosts may be quite variable[21,22,23,24,25,26] Aphids carrying Spiroplasma would drop off the plant and sporulate away from siblings, limiting the spread of the disease[28]
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