BACKGROUND Flowers are admirable in scenic good looks and artistic beautification. These are also playing necessary roles in therapeutic preparations. Aphid is an important sucking pest of various flowers in ornamental territories and it is generally controlled by predators, so it was necessary to evaluate which aphid species affect the predator more or less. MATERIALS AND METHODS Biocontrol ...

Polyphagous aphid pests cause considerable economic damage to crop plants, primarily through the depletion of photoassimilates and transfer of viruses. The potato aphid (Macrosiphum euphorbiae) is a notable pest of solanaceous crops, however, the molecular mechanisms that underpin the ability to colonize these hosts are unknown. It has recently been demonstrated that like other aphid species, M...

Shortly after its arrival, the soybean aphid, Aphis glycines Matsumura (Hemiptera: Aphididae), became established as the most important insect pest of soybean, Glycine max L. (Merr.), in the northern part of the North American soybean production region. Soybean resistance is an environmentally sustainable method to manage the pest and new soybean aphid resistant cultivars are beginning to be de...

Aphids are amongst the most devastating sap-feeding insects of plants. Like most plant parasites, aphids require intimate associations with their host plants to gain access to nutrients. Aphid feeding induces responses such as clogging of phloem sieve elements and callose formation, which are suppressed by unknown molecules, probably proteins, in aphid saliva. Therefore, it is likely that aphid...

Soybean aphid, Aphis glycines Matsumura (Homoptera: Aphididae), is a severe pest of soybeans in North America. Soybean aphid populations cycle between a secondary summer host, where populations reproduce parthenogenetically and a primary host, where populations overwinter as eggs. In North America, the secondary host is soybean, and the primary hosts are Rhamnus cathartica L. (Rhamnaceae) and R...

Ethylene response factors (ERFs) comprise a large family of transcription factors that regulate numerous biological processes including growth, development, and response to environmental stresses. Here, we report that Pti5, an ERF in tomato [Solanum lycopersicum (Linnaeus)] was transcriptionally upregulated in response to the potato aphid Macrosiphum euphorbiae (Thomas), and contributed to plan...

Aphids display an abundance of adaptations that are not easily studied in existing model systems. Here we review the biology of a new genomic model system, the pea aphid, Acyrthosiphon pisum. We then discuss several phenomena that are particularly accessible to study in the pea aphid: the developmental genetic basis of polyphenisms, aphid-bacterial symbioses, the genetics of adaptation and mech...