PLoS ONE (2013) 8 (7 - e69663)

Valeria Malagnini, Federico Pedrazzoli, Chiara Papetti, Christian Cainelli, Rosaly Zasso, Valeria Gualandri, Alberto Pozzebon and Claudio Ioriatti (2013)
Ecological and genetic differences between Cacopsylla melanoneura (Hemiptera, Psyllidae) populations reveal species host plant preference
PLoS ONE 8 (7 - e69663)
Abstract: The psyllid Cacopsylla melanoneura is considered one of the vectors of ' Candidatus Phytoplasma mali', the causal agent of apple proliferation disease. In Northern Italy, overwintered C. melanoneura adults reach apple and hawthorn around the end of January. Nymph development takes place between March and the end of April. The new generation adults migrate onto conifers around mid-June and come back to the host plant species after overwintering. In this study we investigated behavioural differences, genetic differentiation and gene flow between samples of C. melanoneura collected from the two different host plants. Further analyses were performed on some samples collected from conifers. To assess the ecological differences, host-switching experiments were conducted on C. melanoneura samples collected from apple and hawthorn. Furthermore, the genetic structure of the samples was studied by genotyping microsatellite markers. The examined C. melanoneura samples performed better on their native host plant species. This was verified in terms of oviposition and development of the offspring. Data resulting from microsatellite analysis indicated a low, but statistically significant difference between collected-from-apple and hawthorn samples. In conclusion, both ecological and genetic results indicate a differentiation between C. melanoneura samples associated with the two host plants.
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Database assignments for author(s): Claudio Ioriatti, Alberto Pozzebon, Federico Pedrazzoli

Research topic(s) for pests/diseases/weeds:
population dynamics/ epidemiology
molecular biology - genes

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Pest and/or beneficial records:

Beneficial	Pest/Disease/Weed	Crop/Product	Country	Quarant.
	Cacopsylla melanoneura		France
	Cacopsylla melanoneura		Germany
	Cacopsylla melanoneura	Apple (Malus)	Italy