fluorescence-situ-hybridizations-fish-for-localization-viruses

Fluorescence <em>in situ</em> Hybridizations (FISH) for the Localization of Viruses and Endosymbiotic Bacteria in Plant and Insect Tissues

Fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) is a name given to a variety of techniques commonly used for visualizing gene transcripts in eukaryotic cells ...

Volcani Center

Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Insects are exposed to a variety of stress factors in their environment, and, in many cases for insect pests to agriculture, those factors include toxic chemical insecticides. Coping with the toxicity of insecticides can be costly and requires energy and resource allocation for adaptation and survival. Several behavioural, physiological and genetic mechanisms are used by insects to handle toxic insecticides, sometimes leading to resistance by constitutive overexpression of detoxification enzymes or inducing mutations in the target sites. Such actions are costly and may affect reproduction, impair dispersal ability and have several other effects on the insect's fitness. Fitness costs resulting from resistance to insecticides has been reported in many insects from different orders, and several examples are given in this mini-review.

Fitness costs associated with insecticide resistance.

Persistent circulative transmission of plant viruses involves complex interactions between the transmitted virus and its insect vector. Several studies have shown that insect vector proteins are involved in the passage and the transmission of the virus. Interestingly, proteins expressed by bacterial endosymbionts that reside in the insect vector, were also shown to influence the transmission of these viruses. Thus far, the transmission of two plant viruses that belong to different virus genera was shown to be facilitated by a bacterial chaperone protein called GroEL. This protein was shown to be implicated in the transmission of Potato leafroll virus (PLRV) by the green peach aphid Myzus persicae, and the transmission of Tomato yellow leaf curl virus (TYLCV) by the sweetpotato whitefly Bemisia tabaci. These tri-trophic levels of interactions and their possible evolutionary implications are reviewed.

The role of bacterial chaperones in the circulative transmission of plant viruses by insect vectors.

Plant defensive metabolites such as nicotine can provide barriers to host range expansion by generalist herbivores. Nicotine is one of the most abundant and toxic plant secondary metabolite in nature, and defined by high toxicity to plant-feeding insects. There is significant variation in nicotine tolerance among Bemisia tabaci (tobacco whitefly) isolates. Some nicotine-tolerant B. tabaci strains can consume 40-fold higher nicotine levels than susceptible strains, and also show cross-resistance to neonicotinoid insecticides. In this study, we used biological and molecular assays to investigate the responses of B. tabaci strains that differ in their ability to tolerate dietary nicotine.

Adi Kliot

Department of Entomology

Volcani Center

Fluorescence in situ Hybridizations (FISH) for the Localization of Viruses and Endosymbiotic Bacteria in Plant and Insect Tissues

Adi Kliot

.css-o250i3{font-size:18px;font-family:Open Sans,sans-serif;line-height:21.6px;}Department of Entomology

Volcani Center

Fluorescence in situ Hybridizations (FISH) for the Localization of Viruses and Endosymbiotic Bacteria in Plant and Insect Tissues

Department of Entomology