Molecular Markers for Analyses of Genetic Diversity within the Complex with Emphasis on Argentine Populations.

The South American fruit fly (Wiedmann) has a vast range extending from northern Mexico, through Central America, to South America where it is an extremely polyphagous pest of wild and cultivated fruits. It is a complex of cryptic species currently composed of eight recognised morphotypes: "Mexican", "Venezuelan", "Andean", "Peruvian", "Ecuadorian", and the three Brazilian morphotypes "Brazilian-1", "Brazilian-2", and "Brazilian-3". Molecular markers that can identify the member species of the complex are crucial for the implementation of effective pest control measures, such as the sterile insect technique.

Phenotypic and genetic characterization of Africanized colonies with natural tolerance to and contrasting defensive behavior.

Africanized colonies with promising characteristics for beekeeping have been detected in northern Argentina (subtropical climate) and are considered of interest for breeding programs. Integral evaluation of this feral material revealed high colony strength and resistance/tolerance to brood diseases. However, these Africanized honeybees (AHB) also showed variable negative behavioral traits for beekeeping, such as defensiveness, tendency to swarm and avoidance behavior.

Identification of candidate genes associated with host-seeking behavior in the parasitoid wasp Diachasmimorpha longicaudata.

Background: Diachasmimorpha longicaudata is a hymenopteran fruit fly endoparasitoid. Females of this species find their hosts for oviposition by using complex sensorial mechanisms in response to physical and chemical stimuli associated with the host and host habitat. Ecological and behavioral aspects related to host-seeking behavior for oviposition have been extensively studied in D.

Analysis of the Gut Bacterial Community of Wild Larvae of sp. 1: Effect of Host Fruit, Environment, and Prominent Stable Associations of the Genera , , and .

The genus (Diptera Tephritidae) includes some of the most important fruit fly pests in the Americas. Here, we studied the gut bacterial community of 3rd instar larvae of sp. 1 through Next Generation Sequencing (lllumina) of the V3-V4 hypervariable region within the 16S rRNA gene.

Vaccination Is Not Enough: Understanding the Increase in Cases of COVID-19 in Chile despite a High Vaccination Rate.

Chile, an OECD country in the southern hemisphere, surprised the world with a high speed COVID-19 vaccination rate at the beginning of 2021. Despite this, cases reached a record high again in April 2021, and the country went back to a state of emergency. The reasons for this are multiple, complex, and interconnected.

Identification and characterization of soluble binding proteins associated with host foraging in the parasitoid wasp Diachasmimorpha longicaudata.

The communication and reproduction of insects are driven by chemical sensing. During this process, chemical compounds are transported across the sensillum lymph to the sensory neurons assisted by different types of soluble binding proteins: odorant-binding proteins (OBPs); chemosensory proteins (CSPs); some members of ML-family proteins (MD-2 (myeloid differentiation factor-2)-related Lipid-recognition), also known as NPC2-like proteins. Potential transcripts involved in chemosensing were identified by an in silico analysis of whole-body female and male transcriptomes of the parasitic wasp Diachasmimorpha longicaudata.

Geographic distribution of sex chromosome polymorphism in Anastrepha fraterculus sp. 1 from Argentina.

Background: Anastrepha fraterculus is recognized as a quarantine pest in several American countries. This fruit fly species is native to the American continent and distributed throughout tropical and subtropical regions. It has been reported as a complex of cryptic species, and at least eight morphotypes have been described.

Transcriptome analysis of Anastrepha fraterculus sp. 1 males, females, and embryos: insights into development, courtship, and reproduction.

Background: Anastrepha fraterculus sp. 1 is considered a quarantine pest in several American countries. Since chemical control applied in an integrated pest management program is the only strategy utilized against this pest, the development of pesticide-free methods, such as the Sterile Insect Technique, is being considered.

Gut Bacteriome Analysis of sp. 1 During the Early Steps of Laboratory Colonization.

Microbial communities associated to insect species are involved in essential biological functions such as host nutrition, reproduction and survivability. Main factors have been described as modulators of gut bacterial community, such as diet, habit, developmental stage and taxonomy of the host. The present work focuses on the complex changes that gut microbial communities go through when wild insects are introduced to artificial rearing conditions.

Associated With Tephritid Fruit Fly Pests: From Basic Research to Applications.

Members of the true fruit flies (family Tephritidae) are among the most serious agricultural pests worldwide, whose control and management demands large and costly international efforts. The need for cost-effective and environmentally friendly integrated pest management (IPM) has led to the development and implementation of autocidal control strategies. These approaches include the widely used sterile insect technique and the incompatible insect technique (IIT).

Genetic variation and heteroplasmy of Varroa destructor inferred from ND4 mtDNA sequences.

Varroa destructor, a parasitic mite of the western honey bee, Apis mellifera L., is a serious threat to colonies and beekeeping worldwide. Population genetics studies of the mite have provided information on two mitochondrial haplotypes infecting honey bee colonies, named K and J (after Korea and Japan, respectively, where they were originally identified).

Gut bacterial diversity and physiological traits of Anastrepha fraterculus Brazilian-1 morphotype males are affected by antibiotic treatment.

Background: The interaction between gut bacterial symbionts and Tephritidae became the focus of several studies that showed that bacteria contributed to the nutritional status and the reproductive potential of its fruit fly hosts. Anastrepha fraterculus is an economically important fruit pest in South America. This pest is currently controlled by insecticides, which prompt the development of environmentally friendly methods such as the sterile insect technique (SIT).

Wolbachia infection in Argentinean populations of Anastrepha fraterculus sp1: preliminary evidence of sex ratio distortion by one of two strains.

Background: Wolbachia, one of the most abundant taxa of intracellular Alphaproteobacteria, is widespread among arthropods and filarial nematodes. The presence of these maternally inherited bacteria is associated with modifications of host fitness, including a variety of reproductive abnormalities, such as cytoplasmic incompatibility, thelytokous parthenogenesis, host feminization and male-killing. Wolbachia has attracted much interest for its role in biological, ecological and evolutionary processes as well as for its potential use in novel and environmentally-friendly strategies for the control of insect pests and disease vectors including a major agricultural pest, the South American fruit fly, Anastrepha fraterculus Wiedemann (Diptera: Tephritidae).

Symbionts do not affect the mating incompatibility between the Brazilian-1 and Peruvian morphotypes of the Anastrepha fraterculus cryptic species complex.

The South American fruit fly, Anastrepha fraterculus, is clearly undergoing a speciation process. Among others, two of their morphotypes, the Brazilian-1 and Peruvian, have accumulated differences in pre- and post-zygotic mechanisms resulting in a degree of reproductive isolation. Both harbor a different strain of Wolbachia, which is a widespread endosymbiotic bacterium among many invertebrates producing a range of reproductive effects.

Distribution and prevalence of Nosema apis and N. ceranae in temperate and subtropical eco-regions of Argentina.

A total of 361 colonies from 59 apiaries located in two temperate and three subtropical eco-regions were examined during the post-harvest period to determine distribution and prevalence of Nosema spp. Apiaries from subtropical eco-regions showed a lower spore count than those from temperate eco-regions. Pure N.

Transcriptome profiling of Diachasmimorpha longicaudata towards useful molecular tools for population management.

Background: Diachasmimorpha longicaudata (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) is a solitary parasitoid of Tephritidae (Diptera) fruit flies of economic importance currently being mass-reared in bio-factories and successfully used worldwide. A peculiar biological aspect of Hymenoptera is its haplo-diploid life cycle, where females (diploid) develop from fertilized eggs and males (haploid) from unfertilized eggs. Diploid males were described in many species and recently evidenced in D.

Cytogenetic Analysis of the South American Fruit Fly Anastrepha fraterculus (Diptera:Tephritidae) Species Complex: Construction of Detailed Photographic Polytene Chromosome Maps of the Argentinian Af. sp.1 Member.

Genetic and cytogenetic studies constitute a significant basis for understanding the biology of insect pests and the design and the construction of genetic tools for biological control strategies. Anastrepha fraterculus is an important pest of the Tephritidae family. It is distributed from southern Texas through eastern Mexico, Central America and South America causing significant crop damage and economic losses.

Relevant genetic differentiation among Brazilian populations of Anastrepha fraterculus (Diptera, Tephritidae).

We used a population genetic approach to detect the presence of genetic diversity among six populations of Anastrepha fraterculus across Brazil. To this aim, we used Simple Sequence Repeat (SSR) markers, which may capture the presence of differentiative processes across the genome in distinct populations. Spatial analyses of molecular variance were used to identify groups of populations that are both genetically and geographically homogeneous while also being maximally differentiated from each other.

Sex chromosomes in mitotic and polytene tissues of Anastrepha fraterculus (Diptera, Tephritidae) from Argentina: a review.

Cytogenetics, which is considered a fundamental tool to understand basic genetic and genomic issues of species, has greatly contributed to the description of polymorphisms both at inter- and intra-specific level. In fact, cytogenetics was one of the first approaches used to propose Anastrepha fraterculus (Diptera: Tephritidae) as a complex of cryptic species. Different morphological variants of sex chromosomes have been reported among Argentinean populations of Anastrepha fraterculus.

Complementary sex determination in the parasitic wasp Diachasmimorpha longicaudata.

We studied the sex determination in Diachasmimorpha longicaudata, a parasitoid braconid wasp widely used as biological control agent of fruit pest tephritid flies. We tested the complementary sex determination hypothesis (CSD) known in at least 60 species of Hymenoptera. According to CSD, male or female development depends on the allelic composition of one sex locus (single-locus CSD) or multiple sex loci (multiple-locus CSD).

Dynamics of genetic variability in Anastrepha fraterculus (Diptera: Tephritidae) during adaptation to laboratory rearing conditions.

Background: Anastrepha fraterculus is one of the most important fruit fly plagues in the American continent and only chemical control is applied in the field to diminish its population densities. A better understanding of the genetic variability during the introduction and adaptation of wild A. fraterculus populations to laboratory conditions is required for the development of stable and vigorous experimental colonies and mass-reared strains in support of successful Sterile Insect Technique (SIT) efforts.

Microsatellite markers from the 'South American fruit fly' Anastrepha fraterculus: a valuable tool for population genetic analysis and SIT applications.

Background: Anastrepha fraterculus Wiedemann is a horticultural pest which causes significant economic losses in the fruit-producing areas of the American continent and limits the access of products to international markets. The use of environmentally friendly control strategies against this pest is constrained due to the limited knowledge of its population structure.

Results: We developed microsatellite markers for A.

Genetics and biology of Anastrepha fraterculus: research supporting the use of the sterile insect technique (SIT) to control this pest in Argentina.

Two species of true fruit flies (taxonomic family Tephritidae) are considered pests of fruit and vegetable production in Argentina: the cosmopolitan Mediterranean fruit fly (Ceratitis capitata Wiedemann) and the new world South American fruit fly (Anastrepha fraterculus Wiedemann). The distribution of these two species in Argentina overlaps north of the capital, Buenos Aires. Regarding the control of these two pests, the varied geographical fruit producing regions in Argentina are in different fly control situations.

Electron tomography of IFT particles.

Cilia and flagella play very important roles in eukaryotic cells, ranging from cell motility to chemo- and mechanosensation with active involvement in embryonic development and control of cell division. Cilia and flagella are highly dynamic organelles undergoing constant turnover at their tip, where multiprotein precursors synthesized in the cell cytoplasm are assembled, turnover products are released and carried back for recycling. Such bidirectional trafficking is maintained by an ATP-dependent active transport that is carried out by intraflagellar transport (IFT) particles.

Precocious sexual signalling and mating in Anastrepha fraterculus (Diptera: Tephritidae) sterile males achieved through juvenile hormone treatment and protein supplements.

Sexual maturation of Anastrepha fraterculus is a long process. Methoprene (a mimic of juvenile hormone) considerably reduces the time for sexual maturation in males. However, in other Anastrepha species, this effect depends on protein intake at the adult stage.