TY - JOUR
T1 - Horizontal transmission of the insect symbiont Rickettsia is plant-mediated
AU - Caspi-Fluger, Ayelet
AU - Inbar, Moshe
AU - Mozes-Daube, Netta
AU - Katzir, Nurit
AU - Portnoy, Vitaly
AU - Belausov, Eduard
AU - Hunter, Martha S.
AU - Zchori-Fein, Einat
N1 - Copyright:
Copyright 2017 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2012/5/7
Y1 - 2012/5/7
N2 - 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.
AB - 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.
KW - Aleyrodidae
KW - Bacteriocyte
KW - Bemisia tabaci
KW - Horizontal transfer
KW - Whiteflies
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U2 - 10.1098/rspb.2011.2095
DO - 10.1098/rspb.2011.2095
M3 - Article
C2 - 22113034
AN - SCOPUS:84858766294
VL - 279
SP - 1791
EP - 1796
JO - Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological sciences
JF - Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological sciences
SN - 0962-8436
IS - 1734
ER -