Interactions between epiphytic bacteria and herbivorous insects are ubiquitous on plants, but little is known about their ecological implications. Aphids are devastating crop pests worldwide, and so understanding how epiphytic bacteria impact aphid populations is critically important. Recent evidence demonstrates that plant-associated bacteria, such as Pseudomonas syringae, can be highly virulent to one species of aphid, the pea aphid (Acyrthosiphon pisum). Yet currently we have no knowledge on how broad this phenomenon is across diverse aphid species that are of high agricultural concern. In controlled experiments using oral exposure in artificial diet, we challenged five aphid species of agricultural importance with three strains of P. syringae that vary in virulence to the pea aphid. These strains also vary in epiphytic ability and comprise two phytopathogens and one non-plant pathogenic strain. In general, differences in virulence to aphids remained relatively constant across strains regardless of the aphid species, except for the bird cherry-oat aphid (Rhopalosiphum padi) which is significantly less susceptible to two P. syringae strains. We demonstrate that lower infection incidence likely plays a role in the reduced susceptibility. Importantly, these data support previous results showing that interactions with epiphytic bacteria are important for aphids and may play a large, but underappreciated, role in insect population dynamics. Our study illustrates a potential role of epiphytic bacteria in the biological control of aphid pests broadly, but suggests the need for more research encompassing a greater diversity of pest species.
Importance
Sap-sucking aphids are insects of huge agricultural concern, not only because of direct damage caused by feeding, but also because of their ability to transmit various plant pathogens. Some bacteria that grow on leaf surfaces, such as Pseudomonas syringae, can infect and kill aphids, making them potentially useful in biological control of pest aphids. However, only one aphid species, the pea aphid (Acyrthosiphon pisum) has been tested for infection by P. syringae. Here we challenged five aphid species of agricultural importance with three strains of P. syringae that vary in virulence to the pea aphid. We found that four of these aphid species were susceptible to infection and death, suggesting that these bacteria could be broadly useful for biological control. However, one aphid species was much more resistant to infection, indicating that more testing on diverse aphid species is needed.
Epiphytic strains of Pseudomonas syringae kill diverse aphid species.
