Horizontal transmission of the insect symbiont Rickettsia is plant-mediated
Bacteria in the genus Rickettsia, best known as vertebrate pathogens vectored by blood-feeding arthropods, can also be found in phytophagous insects. The presence of closely related bacterial symbionts in evolutionarily distant arthropod hosts presupposes a means of horizontal transmission, but no m...
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Published in | Proceedings of the Royal Society. B, Biological sciences Vol. 279; no. 1734; pp. 1791 - 1796 |
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Main Authors | , , , , , , , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
England
The Royal Society
07.05.2012
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Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | Bacteria in the genus Rickettsia, best known as vertebrate pathogens vectored by blood-feeding arthropods, can also be found in phytophagous insects. The presence of closely related bacterial symbionts in evolutionarily distant arthropod hosts presupposes a means of horizontal transmission, but no mechanism for this transmission has been described. Using a combination of experiments with live insects, molecular analyses and microscopy, we found that Rickettsia were transferred from an insect host (the whitefly Bemisia tabaci) to a plant, moved inside the phloem, and could be acquired by other whiteflies. In one experiment, Rickettsia was transferred from the whitefly host to leaves of cotton, basil and black nightshade, where the bacteria were restricted to the phloem cells of the plant. In another experiment, Rickettsia-free adult whiteflies, physically segregated but sharing a cotton leaf with Rickettsia-plus individuals, acquired the Rickettsia at a high rate. Plants can serve as a reservoir for horizontal transmission of Rickettsia, a mechanism which may explain the occurrence of phylogenetically similar symbionts among unrelated phytophagous insect species. This plant-mediated transmission route may also exist in other insect–symbiont systems and, since symbionts may play a critical role in the ecology and evolution of their hosts, serve as an immediate and powerful tool for accelerated evolution. |
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Bibliography: | ark:/67375/V84-GR1XGBCH-J href:rspb20112095.pdf ArticleID:rspb20112095 istex:EF3D93C4A9C450F0F9D39B85E66AB9AD9FD30FEF ObjectType-Article-2 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-1 content type line 23 ObjectType-Article-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 |
ISSN: | 0962-8452 1471-2954 |
DOI: | 10.1098/rspb.2011.2095 |