Transmission experiments of different isolates of Cucumber mosaic virus (CMV), Watermelon mosaic virus (WMV) and Zucchini yellow mosaic virus (ZYMV) were conducted using established colonies of Aphis gossypii Glover, Myzus persicae (Sulzer), A. fabae Scopoli and A. craccivora Koch as vectors. The transmission procedure used provided an estimate of the virus transmission efficiency for each aphi...

Aphids are important agricultural pests and also biological models for studies of insect-plant interactions, symbiosis, virus vectoring, and the developmental causes of extreme phenotypic plasticity. Here we present the 464 Mb draft genome assembly of the pea aphid Acyrthosiphon pisum. This first published whole genome sequence of a basal hemimetabolous insect provides an outgroup to the multip...

We evaluated selected soybean, Glycine max (L.) Merr., genotypes during their reproductive stages for resistance to the soybean aphid, Aphis glycines Matsumura (Hemiptera: Aphididae), under greenhouse conditions and documented the categories of aphid-resistant soybean. Two screening studies were performed to assess the level of resistance to the soybean aphid on six soybean genotypes during the...

Aphid (Hemiptera: Aphididae) saliva, when injected into host plants during feeding, causes physiological changes in hosts that facilitate aphid feeding and cause injury to plants. Comparing salivary constituents among aphid species could help identify which salivary products are universally important for general aphid feeding processes, which products are involved with specific host association...

It is well known that plant damage by leaf-chewing herbivores can induce resistance in neighbouring plants. It is unknown whether such communication occurs in response to sap-feeding herbivores, whether communication is specific to herbivore identity, and the chemical basis of communication, including specificity. We carried out glasshouse experiments using the California-native shrub Baccharis...

Red imported Þre ants, Solenopsis invicta (Buren) (Hymenoptera: Formicidae), are an invasive species found in high densities throughout southeastern agricultural systems. We tested the hypothesis that Þre ants tend cotton aphids, Aphis gossypiiGlover (Homoptera: Aphididae), and thus release them from predation by lady beetle larvae, Coccinella septempunctata L. and Hippodamia convergens Guerin-...

Pea enation mosaic virus (PEMV)--a plant RNA virus transmitted exclusively by aphids--causes disease in multiple food crops. However, the aphid-virus interactions required for disease transmission are poorly understood. For virus transmission, PEMV binds to a heavily glycosylated receptor aminopeptidase N in the pea aphid gut and is transcytosed across the gut epithelium into the aphid body cav...

Aphids are economically important pests that display exceptional variation in host range. The determinants of diverse aphid host ranges are not well understood, but it is likely that molecular interactions are involved. With significant progress being made towards understanding host responses upon aphid attack, the mechanisms underlying non-host resistance remain to be elucidated. Here, we inve...

Most parasitoids of aphids are small wasps belonging to the families Braconidae or Aphelinidae. However, some dipteran parasitoids are also known to use aphids as hosts. We describe and give life-history information on a new species of aphid parasitoid, Endaphis fugitiva Gagné and Muratori, found to parasitize the banana aphid, Pentalonia nigronervosa Coquerel, the vector of banana bunchy top v...

Atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration has increased significantly and is projected to double by 2100. To increase current food production levels, understanding how pests and diseases respond to future climate driven by increasing CO2 is imperative. We investigated the effects of elevated CO2 (eCO2) on the interactions among wheat (cv. Yitpi), Barley yellow dwarf virus and an important ...