Effects of Endosymbiont Disruption on the Nutritional Dynamics of the Pea Aphid Acyrthosiphon pisum

Abstract

Pea aphid (<i>Acyrthosiphon pisum</i>) is a worldwide pest that feeds exclusively on the phloem sap of numerous host plants. It harbours a well-known primary endosymbiont <i>Buchnera</i> <i>aphidicola</i> that helps to overcome the nutritional deficiency of a plant-based diet. However, how the <i>Buchnera</i> contributes to the nutritional and energy metabolism of its aphid host is unclear to date. In the current study, the function of <i>Buchnera</i> in relation to nutritional synthesis of pea aphid was investigated by disrupting the primary endosymbiont with an antibiotic rifampicin. Our findings revealed that the disruption of <i>Buchnera</i> led to infertility and higher loss in body mass of aphid hosts. Body length and width were also decreased significantly compared to healthy aphids. The detection of nutrition indicated that the quantity of proteins, soluble sugars, and glycogen in aposymbiotic pea aphids increased slowly with the growth of the aphid host. In comparison, the quantities of all the nutritional factors were significantly lower than those of symbiotic pea aphids, while the quantity of total lipid and neutral fat in aposymbiotic pea aphids were distinctly higher than those of symbiotic ones. Thus, we concluded that the significant reduction of the total amount of proteins, soluble sugars, and glycogen and the significant increase of neutral fats in aposymbiotic pea aphids were due to the disruption of <i>Buchnera</i>, which confirmed that the function of <i>Buchnera</i> is irreplaceable in the pea aphid.