Gao Han, Yin Xiang-Jie, Fan Zhen-Huai, Gu Xiao-Hang, Su Zheng-Qin, Luo Bing-Rui, Qiu Bao-Li, Zhang Li-He
Engineering Research Center of Biotechnology for Active Substances, Ministry of Education, Chongqing Normal University, Chongqing 401331, China.
Insects. 2025 Jul 9;16(7):703. doi: 10.3390/insects16070703.
Insects and their endosymbionts have a close mutualistic relationship. However, the precise nature of the bacterial endosymbiont-mediated interaction between host plants and whitefly MEAM1 is still unclear. In the present study, six populations of MEAM1 sharing the same genetic background were established by rearing insects for ten generations on different host plants, including poinsettia, cabbage, cotton, tomato, and tobacco, and an additional population was reared on cotton and treated with antibiotics. The physiological and nutritional traits of the insects were found to be dependent on the host plant on which they had been reared. Systematic analysis was conducted on the endosymbiont titers, the amino acid molecules and contents, as well as developmental and oviposition changes in the MEAM1 populations reared on each host plant tested. The results indicate that contained the primary symbiont and the secondary symbionts and . In addition, the titer of endosymbiotic bacteria in females is higher than that in males. Among the MEAM1 populations reared on each host plant, the variation pattern of titer generally corresponded with changes in biological characteristics (body length, weight and fecundity) and AA contents. This suggests that changes in the amino acid contents and biological characteristics of different populations may be due to changes in the content and the differences in the nutrition of the host plants themselves. Our findings were further confirmed by the reduction in with antibiotic treatment. The amino acids, body size, body weight, and fecundity of were all reduced with the decrease in the titer after antibiotic treatment. In summary, our research revealed that host plants can affect the content of symbiotic bacteria, particularly , and subsequently affect the nutrition (i.e., the essential amino acids content) of host insects, thus changing their biological characteristics.
昆虫与其内共生菌存在密切的互利共生关系。然而，细菌内共生菌介导的寄主植物与烟粉虱MEAM1之间相互作用的确切性质仍不清楚。在本研究中，通过在不同寄主植物（包括一品红、卷心菜、棉花、番茄和烟草）上饲养昆虫十代，建立了六个具有相同遗传背景的MEAM1种群，另外一个种群在棉花上饲养并用抗生素处理。发现昆虫的生理和营养特性取决于它们所饲养的寄主植物。对在每种测试寄主植物上饲养的MEAM1种群的内共生菌滴度、氨基酸分子和含量以及发育和产卵变化进行了系统分析。结果表明，其含有主要共生菌以及次要共生菌和。此外，雌性体内共生细菌的滴度高于雄性。在每种寄主植物上饲养的MEAM1种群中，滴度的变化模式通常与生物学特征（体长、体重和繁殖力）和氨基酸含量的变化相对应。这表明不同种群氨基酸含量和生物学特征的变化可能是由于含量的变化以及寄主植物自身营养差异所致。抗生素处理导致含量降低进一步证实了我们的发现。抗生素处理后，随着滴度的降低，烟粉虱的氨基酸、体型、体重和繁殖力均降低。总之，我们的研究表明寄主植物可以影响共生细菌的含量，特别是，进而影响寄主昆虫的营养（即必需氨基酸含量），从而改变它们的生物学特征。
