Agricultural and Forest Entomology (2008) 10, 147-155

Youngsoo Son, Shirley Luckhart, Xing Zhang, Matthew J. Lieber and Edwin E. Lewis (2008)
Effects and implications of antibiotic treatment on Wolbachia-infected vine weevil (Coleoptera: Curculionidae)
Agricultural and Forest Entomology 10 (2), 147-155
Abstract: 1 The parthenogenetic weevil Otiorhynchus sulcatus was collected from five geographical locations in the U.S.A. All weevils from each location were infected by Wolbachia belonging to supergroup B.
2 We hypothesized that treatment with tetracycline, which has been used to clear Wolbachia infection, would influence the reproduction of Wolbachia-infected parthenogenetic O. sulcatus females. Tetracycline treatment of preovipositional O. sulcatus females specifically inhibited egg hatching but had no effect relative to controls on any other physiological trait.
3 Treatment with gentamicin, which reportedly has no effect on Wolbachia infection but is indistinguishable from tetracycline in inhibiting protein synthesis of other bacterial genera, did not influence egg hatching.
4 These findings strongly suggest that the inhibition of egg development results from the antibiotic effect on Wolbachia rather than by direct toxic effects on O. sulcatus physiology.
5 We speculate that Wolbachia may be necessary for normal development of O. sulcatus eggs and discuss the implications of these findings for O. sulcatus ecology.
(The abstract is excluded from the Creative Commons licence and has been copied with permission by the publisher.)
Link to article at publishers website
Database assignments for author(s): Youngsoo Son, Edwin E. Lewis

Research topic(s) for pests/diseases/weeds:
general biology - morphology - evolution

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Pest and/or beneficial records:

Beneficial	Pest/Disease/Weed	Crop/Product	Country	Quarant.
	Otiorhynchus sulcatus