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Research article - Peer-reviewed, 2022

Endosymbiotic Bacterial Diversity of Corn Leaf Aphid, Rhopalosiphum maidis Fitch (Hemiptera: Aphididae) Associated with Maize Management Systems

Csorba, Artur Botond; Fora, Ciprian George; Balint, Janos; Felfoldi, Tamas; Szabo, Attila; Mathe, Istvan; Loxdale, Hugh D.; Kentelky, Endre; Nyaradi, Imre-Istvan; Balog, Adalbert

Abstract

In this study, different maize fields cultivated under different management systems were sampled to test corn leaf aphid, Rhopalosiphum maidis, populations in terms of total and endosymbiotic bacterial diversity. Corn leaf aphid natural populations were collected from traditionally managed maize fields grown under high agricultural and natural landscape diversity as well as conventionally treated high-input agricultural fields grown in monoculture and with fertilizers use, hence with low natural landscape diversity. Total bacterial community assessment by DNA sequencing was performed using the Illumina MiSeq platform. In total, 365 bacterial genera were identified and 6 endosymbiont taxa. A high abundance of the primary endosymbiont Buchnera and secondary symbionts Serratia and Wolbachia were detected in all maize crops. Their frequency was found to be correlated with the maize management system used, probably with fertilizer input. Three other facultative endosymbionts ("Candidatus Hamiltonella", an uncultured Rickettsiales genus, and Spiroplasma) were also recorded at different frequencies under the two management regimes. Principal components analyses revealed that the relative contribution of the obligate and dominant symbiont Buchnera to the aphid endosymbiotic bacterial community was 72%, whereas for the managed system this was only 16.3%. When facultative symbionts alone were considered, the effect of management system revealed a DNA diversity of 23.3%.

Keywords

monoculture; large-scale crops; total bacterial diversity; primary symbionts; secondary symbionts; amplicon sequencing; 16S rRNA gene

Published in

Microorganisms
2022, Volume: 10, number: 5, article number: 939
Publisher: MDPI

    Associated SLU-program

    SLU Plant Protection Network

    UKÄ Subject classification

    Agricultural Science
    Microbiology

    Publication identifier

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms10050939

    Permanent link to this page (URI)

    https://res.slu.se/id/publ/117420