Department of Zoology, Warsaw University of Life Sciences - SGGW, Ciszewskiego 8, 02-786 Warszawa, Poland.
Department of Developmental Biology and Morphology of Invertebrates, Institute of Zoology and Biomedical Research, Jagiellonian University, Gronostajowa 9, 30-387 Kraków, Poland.
Arthropod Struct Dev. 2018 Jan;47(1):56-63. doi: 10.1016/j.asd.2017.11.002. Epub 2017 Nov 14.
Scale insects, like other plant sap-consumers, are host to symbiotic microorganisms which provide them with the substances missing from their diet. In contrast to most scale insects, Kermes quercus (Linnaeus) was regarded as asymbiotic. Our histological and ultrastructural observations show that in the body of the feeding stages of K. quercus collected in two locations (Warsaw and Cracow), numerous yeast-like microorganisms occur. These microorganisms were localized in the cytoplasm of fat body cells. The yeast-like microorganisms were observed neither in other organs of the host insect nor in the eggs. These microorganisms did not cause any damage to the structure of the ovaries and the course of oogenesis of the host insect. The females infected by them produced about 1300 larvae. The lack of these microorganisms in the cytoplasm of eggs indicates that they are not transmitted transovarially from mother to offspring. Molecular analyses indicated that the microorganisms which reside in the body of K. quercus are closely related to the entomopathogenic fungi Cordyceps and Ophiocordyceps, which belong to the Sordariomycetes class within the Ascomycota. The role of yeast-like microorganisms to their host insects remains unknown; however, it has been suggested that they may represent newly acquired symbionts.
介壳虫，像其他植物汁液消费者一样，它们身上携带有共生微生物，这些微生物为它们提供了饮食中缺乏的物质。与大多数介壳虫不同，栎红桔（Linnaeus）被认为是无共生的。我们的组织学和超微结构观察表明，在采集自两个地点（华沙和克拉科夫）的栎红桔取食阶段的虫体中，存在大量酵母样微生物。这些微生物定位于脂肪体细胞的细胞质中。在宿主昆虫的其他器官或卵中均未观察到这些酵母样微生物。这些微生物未对卵巢的结构和宿主昆虫的卵发生过程造成任何损害。被它们感染的雌性产下约 1300 头幼虫。这些微生物在卵细胞质中的缺失表明它们不是从母代经卵传递给后代的。分子分析表明，寄居于栎红桔体内的微生物与昆虫病原真菌虫草属和蛇虫草属密切相关，它们属于子囊菌门的盘菌纲。这些酵母样微生物对其宿主昆虫的作用尚不清楚；然而，有人提出它们可能代表新获得的共生体。
