The Protector within: Comparative Genomics of APSE Phages across Aphids Reveals Rampant Recombination and Diverse Toxin Arsenals.

Phages can fundamentally alter the physiology and metabolism of their hosts. Although these phages are ubiquitous in the bacterial world, they have seldom been described among endosymbiotic bacteria. One notable exception is the APSE phage that is found associated with the gammaproteobacterial Hamiltonella defensa, hosted by several insect species.

The evolution of climate tolerance in conifer-feeding aphids in relation to their host's climatic niche.

Climate adaptation has major consequences in the evolution and ecology of all living organisms. Though phytophagous insects are an important component of Earth's biodiversity, there are few studies investigating the evolution of their climatic preferences. This lack of research is probably because their evolutionary ecology is thought to be primarily driven by their interactions with their host plants.

Serial horizontal transfer of vitamin-biosynthetic genes enables the establishment of new nutritional symbionts in aphids' di-symbiotic systems.

Many insects depend on obligate mutualistic bacteria to provide essential nutrients lacking from their diet. Most aphids, whose diet consists of phloem, rely on the bacterial endosymbiont Buchnera aphidicola to supply essential amino acids and B vitamins. However, in some aphid species, provision of these nutrients is partitioned between Buchnera and a younger bacterial partner, whose identity varies across aphid lineages.

Deciphering host-parasitoid interactions and parasitism rates of crop pests using DNA metabarcoding.

An accurate estimation of parasitism rates and diversity of parasitoids of crop insect pests is a prerequisite for exploring processes leading to efficient natural biocontrol. Traditional methods such as rearing have been often limited by taxonomic identification, insect mortality and intensive work, but the advent of high-throughput sequencing (HTS) techniques, such as DNA metabarcoding, is increasingly seen as a reliable and powerful alternative approach. Little has been done to explore the benefits of such an approach for estimating parasitism rates and parasitoid diversity in an agricultural context.

A genomic map of climate adaptation in Mediterranean cattle breeds.

Domestic species such as cattle (Bos taurus taurus and B. t. indicus) represent attractive biological models to characterize the genetic basis of short-term evolutionary response to climate pressure induced by their post-domestication history.

A Freeloader? The Highly Eroded Yet Large Genome of the Serratia symbiotica Symbiont of Cinara strobi.

Genome reduction is pervasive among maternally inherited bacterial endosymbionts. This genome reduction can eventually lead to serious deterioration of essential metabolic pathways, thus rendering an obligate endosymbiont unable to provide essential nutrients to its host. This loss of essential pathways can lead to either symbiont complementation (sharing of the nutrient production with a novel co-obligate symbiont) or symbiont replacement (complete takeover of nutrient production by the novel symbiont).

BRC4Env, a network of Biological Resource Centres for research in environmental and agricultural sciences.

The Biological Resource Centre for the Environment BRC4Env is a network of Biological Resource Centres (BRCs) and collections whose leading objectives are to improve the visibility of genetic and biological resources maintained by its BRCs and collections and to facilitate their use by a large research community, from agriculture research to life sciences and environmental sciences. Its added value relies on sharing skills, harmonizing practices, triggering projects in comparative biology, and ultimately proposing a single-entry portal to facilitate access to documented samples, taking into account the partnership policies of research institutions as well as the legal frame which varies with the biological nature of resources. BRC4Env currently includes three BRCs: the Centre for Soil Genetic Resources of the platform GenoSol, in partnership with the European Conservatory of Soil Samples; the Egg Parasitoids Collection (EP-Coll); and the collection of ichthyological samples, Colisa.

DNA barcoding and the associated PhylAphidB@se website for the identification of European aphids (Insecta: Hemiptera: Aphididae).

Unlabelled: Aphids constitute a diverse group of plant-feeding insects and are among the most important crop pests in temperate regions. Their morphological identification is time-consuming and requires specific knowledge, training and skills that may take years to acquire. We assessed the advantages and limits of DNA barcoding with the standard COI barcode fragment for the identification of European aphids.

Aphis (Hemiptera: Aphididae) species groups found in the Midwestern United States and their contribution to the phylogenetic knowledge of the genus.

A phylogeny of the genus Aphis Linnaeus, 1 758 was built primarily from specimens collected in the Midwest of the United States. A data matrix was constructed with 68 species and 41 morphological characters with respective character states of alate and apterous viviparous females. Dendrogram topologies of analyses performed using UPGMA (Unweighted Pair Group Method with Arithmetic Mean), Maximum Parsimony and Bayesian analysis of Cytochrome Oxidase I, Elongation Factor 1-α and primary endosymbiont Buchnera aphidicola 16S sequences were not congruent.

Is ecological speciation a major trend in aphids? Insights from a molecular phylogeny of the conifer-feeding genus Cinara.

Introduction: In the past decade ecological speciation has been recognized as having an important role in the diversification of plant-feeding insects. Aphids are host-specialised phytophagous insects that mate on their host plants and, as such, they are prone to experience reproductive isolation linked with host plant association that could ultimately lead to species formation. The generality of such a scenario remains to be tested through macroevolutionary studies.

New data on aphid fauna (Hemiptera, Aphididae) in Algeria.

A survey of aphids was carried out during the period 2008-2011 in different regions of Algeria by collecting and identifying aphids and their host plants. Aphids were collected from 46 host plants. Forty-six species were reported including thirty-six species which were recorded for the first time in this country and thirty species which were recorded for the first time in the Maghreb (North Africa).

Evolution and diversity of Arsenophonus endosymbionts in aphids.

Endosymbiotic bacteria are important drivers of insect evolutionary ecology, acting both as partners that contribute to host adaptation and as subtle parasites that manipulate host reproduction. Among them, the genus Arsenophonus is emerging as one of the most widespread lineages. Its biology is, however, entirely unknown in most cases, and it is therefore unclear how infections spread through insect populations.

Evolutionary lability of a complex life cycle in the aphid genus Brachycaudus.

Background: Most aphid species complete their life cycle on the same set of host-plant species, but some (heteroecious species) alternate between different hosts, migrating from primary (woody) to secondary (herbaceous) host plants. The evolutionary processes behind the evolution of this complex life cycle have often been debated. One widely accepted scenario is that heteroecy evolved from monoecy on woody host plants.

Aphids in the face of global changes.

Global warming is one of the principal challenges facing insects worldwide. It affects individual species and interactions between species directly through effects on their physiology and indirectly through effects on their habitat. Aphids are particularly sensitive to temperature changes due to certain specific biological features of this group.

Evolutionary history of aphid-plant associations and their role in aphid diversification.

Aphids are intimately linked with their host plants that constitute their only food resource and habitat, and thus impose considerable selective pressure on their evolution. It is therefore commonly assumed that host plants have greatly influenced the diversification of aphids. Here, we review what is known about the role of host plant association on aphid speciation by examining both macroevolutionary and population-level studies.

Fine-scale cospeciation between Brachycaudus and Buchnera aphidicola: bacterial genome helps define species and evolutionary relationships in aphids.

Aphids harbour an obligatory symbiont, Buchnera aphidicola, providing essential amino acids not supplied by their diet. These bacteria are transmitted vertically and phylogenic analyses suggest that they have 'cospeciated' with their hosts. We investigated this cospeciation phenomenon at a fine taxonomic level, within the aphid genus Brachycaudus.

High similarity between flanking regions of different microsatellites detected within each of two species of Lepidoptera: Parnassius apollo and Euphydryas aurinia.

Microsatellite flanking regions have been compared in two butterfly species. Several microsatellite flanking regions showed high similarity to one another among different microsatellites within a same species, but very few similarities were found between species. This can be the consequence of either duplication/multiplication events involving large regions containing microsatellites or of microsatellites imbedded in minisatellite regions.