The Detection of Wolbachia in Tea Green Leafhopper (Empoasca onukii Matsuda) and Its Influence on the Host

Qiuqiu Zhang,Xia Zhou,Qiong Wu,Dezhong Ji,Rongmeng Lan,Linhong Jin,Xiaofeng Tan,Yanni Tan

doi:10.3390/agriculture12010036

Qiuqiu Zhang, Xia Zhou + Show 6 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture12010036

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Abstract

Tea green leafhopper (Empoasca onukii Matsuda) is a critical pest in tea production. Wolbachia has attracted much attention as a new direction of pest biological control for its ability of manipulating the hosts’ reproductive biology. In this work, we focused on the detection of Wolbachia in tea green leafhopper and its effect on host reproduction and development. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR), real-time PCR, and fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) techniques were used to detect the distribution of Wolbachia in tea green leafhopper. Wolbachia infection levels were different in different organs of hosts in different insect stages. In addition, comparison between the infected populations and cured population (treated by tetracyclines) revealed that presence of Wolbachia apparently influenced the growth, life cycle, and other reproductive factors of tea green leafhopper, caused, for example, by cytoplasmic incompatibility (CI), thereby reducing number of offspring, shortening lifespan, and causing female-biased sex ratio. This research confirmed that the bacteria Wolbachia was of high incidence in tea leafhoppers and could significantly affect the hosts’ reproductive development and evolution.

Highlights

The tea green leafhopper, (Empoasca onukii Matsuda) (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae), is the major pest affecting tea production in China [1]
Since the diversity and distribution of symbiotic bacteria Wolbachia has been studied in many groups of arthropods including leafhoppers [12,13,14], it is expected to be an eco-friendly alternative management method to control tea leafhopper by inhibiting or antagonizing symbiotic bacteria and realize the green and sustainable development of tea production
Lanes 1, 2, 3, and 4 represented the samples from Fenggang, Jiu’an, Meitan, and Pingtang, respectively (Figure 1), and a single band was obtained by agarose gel electrophoresis only from Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) products that contained genomic DNA of Wolbachia

Summary

Introduction

The tea green leafhopper, (Empoasca onukii Matsuda) (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae), is the major pest affecting tea production in China [1]. The tea green leafhopper, because of its small size and high mobility, is usually unnoticeable until it proliferates in large numbers. It has hemimetabolous development and has 9 to 11 generations a year in the tea producing areas [2,3]. The controlling method of this pest mainly relies on frequent use of pesticides, which might lead to pesticide residues in tea, resistance of insects, pollution of the environment, and destruction of natural enemies [4,10,11]. Since the diversity and distribution of symbiotic bacteria Wolbachia has been studied in many groups of arthropods including leafhoppers [12,13,14], it is expected to be an eco-friendly alternative management method to control tea leafhopper by inhibiting or antagonizing symbiotic bacteria and realize the green and sustainable development of tea production

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