Shandong Engineering Research Center for Environment-Friendly Agricultural Pest Management, College of Plant Health and Medicine, Qingdao Agricultural University, Qingdao 266109, China.
Institute of Entomology, Guizhou University, Guiyang 550025, China.
J Insect Physiol. 2024 Dec;159:104713. doi: 10.1016/j.jinsphys.2024.104713. Epub 2024 Oct 5.
Aphids can produce winged or wingless offspring in response to environmental changes. Host nutrition is one of the extensively studied environmental factors influencing the plasticity of wing morphs of aphids. In this study, we found that the pea aphid, Acyrthosiphon pisum, produced a low proportion of winged offspring when fed on plants, but a significantly higher proportion on the artificial diet. Interestingly, when newly born nymphs were transferred back to the artificial diet after feeding on plants for six hours or longer, most nymphs became wingless. These results suggest that the wing morph state of pea aphids can change postnatally, potentially determined by the nutritional quality of their food. Furthermore, aphids feeding on the artificial diet exhibited higher levels of glucose and stronger insulin signaling activity compared with aphids on plants. Conversely, the amino acid levels were lower, and TOR signaling was weaker in aphids fed on the artificial diet. Insulin and the target of rapamycin (TOR) are the primary nutrient-sensing signaling pathways involved in controlling organism growth and have been implicated in regulating aphid wing morph plasticity. We tested whether these nutrient responsive pathways were involved in postanal wing determination of aphids. However, reducing amino acid content in the diet or inhibiting TOR with rapamycin resulted in a decrease of the winged morph, suggesting that the lower amino acid levels or TOR activity was not responsible for the higher proportion of winged morph on the artificial diet. These results suggest that nutritional quality, particularly sugars like sucrose and glucose, may regulate the postnatal wing morph of the pea aphid, likely via the insulin signaling pathway.
蚜虫可以根据环境变化产生有翅或无翅后代。宿主营养是影响蚜虫翅型可塑性的广泛研究的环境因素之一。在这项研究中，我们发现豌豆蚜（Acyrthosiphon pisum）在食用植物时产生的有翅后代比例较低，但在人工饲料上则显著更高。有趣的是，当刚孵化的若虫在食用植物六小时或更长时间后被转移回人工饲料时，大多数若虫变成无翅。这些结果表明，豌豆蚜的翅型状态可以在出生后发生变化，可能由其食物的营养质量决定。此外，与在植物上取食的蚜虫相比，在人工饲料上取食的蚜虫表现出更高的葡萄糖水平和更强的胰岛素信号活性。相反，在人工饲料上取食的蚜虫中的氨基酸水平较低，TOR 信号较弱。胰岛素和雷帕霉素靶蛋白（TOR）是参与控制生物生长的主要营养感应信号通路，并且与调节蚜虫翅型可塑性有关。我们测试了这些营养感应途径是否参与蚜虫后肛翅的确定。然而，降低饮食中的氨基酸含量或用雷帕霉素抑制 TOR 会导致有翅形态减少，这表明较低的氨基酸水平或 TOR 活性不是人工饲料上有翅形态比例较高的原因。这些结果表明，营养质量，特别是蔗糖和葡萄糖等糖，可能通过胰岛素信号通路调节豌豆蚜的产后翅型。
