• DOI:10.1126/science.1195463
• Corpus ID: 206529034

Symbiotic Bacterium Modifies Aphid Body Color

@article{Tsuchida2010SymbioticBM,
  title={Symbiotic Bacterium Modifies Aphid Body Color},
  author={Tsutomu Tsuchida and Ryuichi Koga and Mitsuyo Horikawa and Tetsuto Tsunoda and Takashi Maoka and Shogo Matsumoto and Jean‐Christophe Simon and Takema Fukatsu},
  journal={Science},
  year={2010},
  volume={330},
  pages={1102 - 1104}
}

• T. Tsuchida, R. Koga, +5 authors T. Fukatsu
• Published 19 November 2010
• Biology
• Science

Turncoat Aphids Aphid color has consequences for the fate of the wearer: Coccinellid beetles prefer to eat red ones and parasitoid wasps attack green ones. What might happen if aphids could change color and outwit their predators? Tsuchida et al. (p. 1102) have found that a subpopulation of the pea aphid can do this, but not without help from a previously unknown species of bacterium that lives intimately with the aphid as an endosymbiont and makes red aphids turn green. The bacterium interferes with host pigment biosynthesis—itself borrowed from fungi long ago in evolution—to stimulate blue-green pigment production as the aphid larva matures, turning the red nymph into a green adult. The ecological consequences of this about-turn of color have yet to be tested, but other studies have shown a variety of effects on aphid behavior mediated by endosymbionts in response to adaptation to different food plants, temperature tolerance, and predator avoidance. Infection with a symbiotic bacterium leads to a spectacular phenotypic change in its host, making red aphids turn green. Color variation within populations of the pea aphid influences relative susceptibility to predators and parasites. We have discovered that infection with a facultative endosymbiont of the genus Rickettsiella changes the insects’ body color from red to green in natural populations. Approximately 8% of pea aphids collected in Western Europe carried the Rickettsiella infection. The infection increased amounts of blue-green polycyclic quinones, whereas it had less of an effect on yellow-red carotenoid pigments. The effect of the endosymbiont on body color is expected to influence prey-predator interactions, as well as interactions with other endosymbionts.