An 8.5-kb plasmid encoding genes (leuABCD) involved in leucine biosynthesis and a small plasmid of 1.74 kb of yet unknown function were found in the intracellular symbiont, Buchnera aphidicola, of two divergent aphid species, Thelaxes suberi and Tetraneura caerulescens, respectively. The leuABCD-carrying plasmid (pBTs1) was amplified from total aphid DNA by inverse long PCR, using outwardly ori...

Aphids are pests on many crops and depend on plant phloem sap as their food source. In an attempt to find factors improving plant resistance against aphids, we studied the effects of overexpression and down-regulation of the lipoxygenase gene LOX2.2 in barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) on the performance of two aphid species. A specialist, bird cherry-oat aphid (Rhopalosiphum padi L.) and a generalis...

The numbers of greenbugs, Schizaphis graminum (Rondani), and bird cherry-oat aphids, Rhopalosiphum padi L., per wheat tiller (stem) were estimated in 189 production winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) fields located throughout Oklahoma. Taylor's power law regressions were calculated from these data and used to construct fixed precision sequential sampling schemes for each species. An evaluation...

Triatoma virus (TrV) is the only virus described to date that infects triatomines, and has previously been considered to be a member of the family Picornaviridae on the basis of physico-chemical properties. The genome of TrV was sequenced completely (9010 nt). Analysis of the sequence revealed the presence of two large open reading frames (ORFs). The predicted amino acid sequence of ORF1 (nt 54...

Comparisons were made between the free amino acid composition in leaf exudates and that in pure phloem sap, using twin samples taken from a single leaf of two oat (Avena sativa L.) and three barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) varieties. Leaf exudate was collected in a 5 mm EDTA-solution (pH 7.0) from cut leaf blades and phloem sap was obtained through excised aphid (Rhopalosiphum padi L.) stylets. Flu...

The complete nucleotide sequence of the genomic RNA of an aphid-infecting virus, Aphid lethal paralysis virus (ALPV), has been determined. The genome is 9812 nt in length and contains two long open reading frames (ORFs), which are separated by an intergenic region of 163 nt. The first ORF (5' ORF) is preceded by an untranslated leader sequence of 506 nt, while an untranslated region of 571 nt f...