UMR BGPI, INRA/CIRAD/AgroM, TA A54/K, Campus International de Baillarguet, 34398 Montpellier Cedex 05, France.
Arthropod Struct Dev. 2010 Jul;39(4):221-9. doi: 10.1016/j.asd.2010.02.005. Epub 2010 May 8.
The recent demonstration that a plant virus could be retained on protein receptors located exclusively in a small area inside the common duct at the tip of aphid maxillary stylets indicated the possible existence of a distinct anatomical structure at this level. Since no distinct feature within the common duct of any aphid species has ever been reported in the literature, we first carefully re-examined the distal extremity of the maxillary stylets of Acyrthosiphon pisum using transmission- and scanning-electron microscopy. Here, we describe an area of the cuticle surface displaying a different structure that is limited to a "band" paving the bottom of the common duct in each opposing maxillary stylet. This band starts at the very distal extremity, adopts a "comma-like" shape as it continues up towards the salivary canal, reducing in width and disappearing before actually reaching it. Investigations on several aphid species led to the conclusion that this anatomical feature-which we have tentatively named the "acrostyle"-is highly conserved among aphids. We then produced an antibody recognizing a consensus peptide located in the middle of the RR-2 motif of cuticular proteins from A. pisum and showed that this motif is accessible specifically within the acrostyle, indicating a higher concentration of cuticular proteins. While it is clear that at least some viruses can use the acrostyle to interact with their aphid vectors to ensure plant-to-plant transmission, the role of this new "organ" in aphid biology is unknown and calls for further investigation in the near future.
最近的研究表明，一种植物病毒可以保留在仅位于蚜虫上颌触须尖端共同管道内一个小区域的蛋白质受体上，这表明在这个水平上可能存在一个独特的解剖结构。由于在任何蚜虫物种的共同管道内从未有过明显特征的报道，我们首先使用透射和扫描电子显微镜仔细重新检查了豌豆蚜上颌触须的远端。在这里，我们描述了一个角质层表面的区域，显示出一种不同的结构，仅限于每个相对上颌触须的共同管道底部的“带”。该带从最远端开始，在向唾液管延伸的过程中呈“逗号状”，在实际到达唾液管之前，宽度减小并消失。对几种蚜虫物种的研究得出结论，这个解剖特征——我们暂称之为“上颚”——在蚜虫中高度保守。然后，我们制备了一种识别豌豆蚜 RR-2 基序中间保守肽的抗体，并表明该基序仅在上颚中可及，表明角质蛋白的浓度更高。虽然很明显，至少一些病毒可以利用上颚与它们的蚜虫载体相互作用，以确保植物间的传播，但这个新“器官”在蚜虫生物学中的作用尚不清楚，需要在不久的将来进一步研究。
