Symbiotic bacterium modifies aphid body color.

Tsutomu Tsuchida, Ryuichi Koga, Mitsuyo Horikawa, Tetsuto Tsunoda, Takashi Maoka, Shogo Matsumoto, Jean-Christophe Simon, Takema Fukatsu

Molecular Entomology Laboratory, RIKEN Advanced Science Institute, Wako 351-0198, Japan. t-tsuchida@riken.jp

Science (New York, N.Y.) 2010 Nov 19

filter terms:

Color variation within populations of the pea aphid influences relative susceptibility to predators and parasites. We have discovered that infection with a facultative endosymbiont of the genus Rickettsiella changes the insects' body color from red to green in natural populations. Approximately 8% of pea aphids collected in Western Europe carried the Rickettsiella infection. The infection increased amounts of blue-green polycyclic quinones, whereas it had less of an effect on yellow-red carotenoid pigments. The effect of the endosymbiont on body color is expected to influence prey-predator interactions, as well as interactions with other endosymbionts.

Citation

Tsutomu Tsuchida, Ryuichi Koga, Mitsuyo Horikawa, Tetsuto Tsunoda, Takashi Maoka, Shogo Matsumoto, Jean-Christophe Simon, Takema Fukatsu. Symbiotic bacterium modifies aphid body color. Science (New York, N.Y.). 2010 Nov 19;330(6007):1102-4