Applied and Environmental Microbiology (2020) 86 (4 - 02509-19)

Tong-Pu Li, Chun-Ying Zhou, Si-Si Zha, Jun-Tao Gong, Zhiyong Xi, Ary A. Hoffmann and Xiao-Yue Hong (2020)
Stable establishment of Cardinium spp. in the brown planthopper Nilaparvata lugens despite decreased host fitness
Applied and Environmental Microbiology 86 (4 - 02509-19)
Abstract: The brown planthopper Nilaparvata lugens (Hemiptera) is a major pest of rice crops in Asia. Artificial transinfections of Wolbachia have recently been used for reducing host impacts, but transinfections have not yet been undertaken with another important endosymbiont, Cardinium. This endosymbiont can manipulate the reproduction of hosts through phenotypes such as cytoplasmic incompatibility (CI), which is strong in the related white-backed planthopper, Sogatella furcifera (Hemiptera). Here, we stably infected N. lugens with Cardinium from S. furcifera and showed that it exhibits perfect maternal transmission in N. lugens. The density of Cardinium varied across developmental stages and tissues of the transinfected host. Cardinium did not induce strong CI in N. lugens, likely due to its low density in testicles. The infection did decrease fecundity and hatching rate in the transinfected host, but a decrease in fecundity was not apparent when transinfected females mated with Wolbachia-infected males. The experiments show the feasibility of transferring Cardinium endosymbionts across hosts, but the deleterious effects of Cardinium on N. lugens limit its potential to spread in wild populations of N. lugens in the absence of strong CI.
(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): Ary A. Hoffmann, Xiao-Yue Hong

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.
	Nilaparvata lugens