scholarly journals The emerging contribution of social wasps to grape rot disease ecology

PeerJ ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. e3223 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne A. Madden ◽  
Sean D. Boyden ◽  
Jonathan-Andrew N. Soriano ◽  
Tyler B. Corey ◽  
Jonathan W. Leff ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Microbial Community ◽  
Disease Ecology ◽  
Marker Gene ◽  
Social Wasps ◽  
Fruit Flies ◽  
Host Susceptibility ◽  
Paper Wasp ◽  
Polistes Dominulus ◽  
Sour Rot ◽  
Rot Disease

Grape sour (bunch) rot is a polymicrobial disease of vineyards that causes millions of dollars in lost revenue per year due to decreased quality of grapes and resultant wine. The disease is associated with damaged berries infected with a community of acetic acid bacteria, yeasts, and filamentous fungi that results in rotting berries with high amounts of undesirable volatile acidity. Many insect species cause the initial grape berry damage that can lead to this disease, but most studies have focused on the role of fruit flies in facilitating symptoms and vectoring the microorganisms of this disease complex. Like fruit flies, social wasps are abundant in vineyards where they feed on ripe berries and cause significant damage, while also dispersing yeasts involved in wine fermentation. Despite this, their possible role in disease facilitation and dispersal of grape rots has not been explored. We tested the hypothesis that the paper wasp Polistes dominulus could facilitate grape sour rot in the absence of other insect vectors. Using marker gene sequencing we characterized the bacterial and fungal community of wild-caught adults. We used a sterilized foraging arena to determine if these wasps transfer viable microorganisms when foraging. We then tested if wasps harboring their native microbial community, or those inoculated with sour rot, had an effect on grape sour rot incidence and severity using a laboratory foraging arena. We found that all wasps harbor some portion of the sour rot microbial community and that they have the ability to transfer viable microorganisms when foraging. Foraging by inoculated and uninoculated wasps led to an increase in berry rot disease symptom severity and incidence. Our results indicate that paper wasps can facilitate sour rot diseases in the absence of other vectors and that the mechanism of this facilitation may include both increasing host susceptibility and transmitting these microbial communities to the grapes. Social wasps are understudied but relevant players in the sour rot ecology of vineyards.

MicroRNA319a regulates plant resistance to Sclerotinia stem rot

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Weiguo Dong ◽  
Wenqing Ren ◽  
Xuan Wang ◽  
He Yuke
Keyword(s):  
Plant Resistance ◽  
Host Susceptibility ◽  
Stem Rot ◽  
Sclerotinia Stem Rot ◽  
Sequencing Data ◽  
Mobility Shift ◽  
Expression Levels ◽  
Affected Plant ◽  
Mobility Shift Assay ◽  
Rot Disease

Abstract MicroRNA319a (miR319a) controls cell division arrest in plant leaves by inhibiting the expression of TCP (TEOSINTE BRANCHED 1/CYCLOIDEA/PCF) family genes. However, it is unclear whether miR319a influences infections by necrotrophic pathogens and host susceptibility. In this study, we revealed that miR319a affected plant resistance to stem rot disease of Sclerotinia sclerotiorum. In the plants of Brassica rapa infected with S. sclerotiorum, miR319a levels increased while expression levels of several BraTCP genes significantly decreased compared with those of the uninfected plants. The overexpression of BraMIR319a in B. rapa increased the susceptibility of the plants to S. sclerotiorum and aggravated stem rot disease, whereas the overexpression of BraTCP4-1 promoted the plant resistance. Our RNA-sequencing data revealed a potential relationship between miR319a and pathogen-related WRKY genes. Chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) assay, electrophoretic mobility shift assay (EMSA) and reporter transaction assay showed that BraTCP4-1 was bound to the promoters of WRKY75, WRKY70, and WRKY33 genes and directly activated these pathogen-related genes. Moreover, the expression levels of WRKY75, WRKY70, and WRKY33 in the plants overexpressing BraMIR319a declined significantly whereas those of the plants overexpressing BraTCP4-1 increased significantly. These results suggest that miR319a and its targeted gene BraTCP4 regulate stem rot resistance through pathways of WRKY genes.

Prey capture and caste-specific payload capacities in the European paper wasp Polistes dominulus

2012 ◽  
Vol 59 (4) ◽  
pp. 519-525 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Brown ◽  
A. Payne ◽  
K. K. Graham ◽  
P. T. Starks
Keyword(s):  
Prey Capture ◽  
Paper Wasp ◽  
Polistes Dominulus

scholarly journals Clypeal patterning in the paper wasp Polistes dominulus: no evidence of adaptive value in the wild

2013 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 623-633 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan P. Green ◽  
Ellouise Leadbeater ◽  
Jonathan M. Carruthers ◽  
Neil S. Rosser ◽  
Eric R. Lucas ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Paper Wasp ◽  
Polistes Dominulus ◽  
Adaptive Value ◽  
In The Wild

scholarly journals Recent developments in nucleic acid based techniques for use in rumen manipulation

2009 ◽  
Vol 38 (spe) ◽  
pp. 341-351 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher McSweeney ◽  
Seungha Kang ◽  
Emma Gagen ◽  
Carl Davis ◽  
Mark Morrison ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Microbial Community ◽  
Nucleic Acid ◽  
Microbial Communities ◽  
Marker Gene ◽  
Molecular Ecology ◽  
Functional Gene ◽  
Rumen Microorganisms ◽  
Dna And Rna ◽  
Conventional Culture ◽  
Reference Strains

Nucleic acid-based techniques which can be used to characterise complex microbial communities without incubation are now being employed regularly in ruminant nutrition studies. Conventional culture-based methods for enumerating rumen microorganisms (bacteria, archaea, protozoa, and fungi) have been superseded and are now used mainly to obtain pure isolates of novel organisms and reference strains that are required for the development and validation of the nucleic acid approaches. These reference strains are also essential for physiological studies of the lifestyle of the organisms as well as sources of genomic DNA and RNA that can be analysed for functional gene activity. The foundation of the molecular ecology techniques is 16S/18S rDNA sequence analysis which has provided a phylogenetically based classification scheme for enumeration and identification of microbial community members. The use of this marker gene in assays involving the use of single nucleic acid probes or primer sets is rapidly evolving to high throughput approaches such as microarray analysis and new generation sequencing technologies. While these analyses are very informative for determining the composition of the microbial community and monitoring changes in population size, they can only infer function based on these observations. The focus of nucleic acid research is now shifting to the functional analysis of the ecosystem which involves the measurement of functional genes and their expression in the predominant or specific members of the rumen microbial community. Functional gene studies are less developed than 16S rDNA-based analysis of community structure. Also for gene expression studies there are inherent problems involved in extracting high quality RNA from digesta, and priming cDNA synthesis from bacterial mRNA. This paper reviews nucleic acid based molecular methods which have recently been developed for studying the structure and function of rumen microbial communities.

scholarly journals Social wasps are effective biocontrol agents of key lepidopteran crop pests

2019 ◽  
Vol 286 (1914) ◽  
pp. 20191676 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robin J. Southon ◽  
Odair A. Fernandes ◽  
Fabio S. Nascimento ◽  
Seirian Sumner
Keyword(s):  
Pest Management ◽  
Native Species ◽  
Crop Production ◽  
Fall Armyworm ◽  
Social Wasps ◽  
Biocontrol Agents ◽  
Paper Wasp ◽  
Crop Pests ◽  
Environmental Consequences ◽  
Management Scheme

Biocontrol agents can help reduce pest populations as part of an integrated pest management scheme, with minimal environmental consequences. However, biocontrol agents are often non-native species and require significant infrastructure; overuse of single agents results in pest resistance. Native biocontrol agents are urgently required for more sustainable multi-faceted approaches to pest management. Social wasps are natural predators of lepidopteran pests, yet their viability as native biocontrol agents is largely unknown. Here, we provide evidence that the social paper wasp Polistes satan is a successful predator on the larvae of two economically important and resilient crop pests, the sugarcane borer Diatraea saccharalis (on sugarcane Saccharum spp.) and the fall armyworm Spodoptera frugiperda (on maize Zea mays ); P. satan wasps significantly reduce crop pest damage. These results provide the much-needed baseline experimental evidence that social wasps have untapped potential as native biocontrol agents for sustainable crop production and food security.

scholarly journals Direct assessment of queen quality and lack of worker suppression in a paper wasp

2005 ◽  
Vol 272 (1570) ◽  
pp. 1339-1344 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jürgen Liebig ◽  
Thibaud Monnin ◽  
Stefano Turillazzi
Keyword(s):  
Reproductive Output ◽  
Ovarian Development ◽  
Inclusive Fitness ◽  
Reproductive Activity ◽  
Egg Laying ◽  
Paper Wasp ◽  
Polistes Dominulus ◽  
Queen Policing ◽  
Reproductive Conflicts ◽  
Animal Societies

Assessing a conspecific's potential is often crucial to increase one's fitness, e.g. in female choice, contests with rivals or reproductive conflicts in animal societies. In the latter, helpers benefit from accurately assessing the fertility of the breeder as an indication of inclusive fitness. There is evidence that this can be achieved using chemical correlates of reproductive activity. Here, we show that queen quality can be assessed by directly monitoring her reproductive output. In the paper wasp Polistes dominulus , we mimicked a decrease in queen fertility by regularly removing brood. This triggered ovarian development and egg-laying by many workers, which strongly suggests that brood abundance is a reliable cue of queen quality. Brood abundance can be monitored when workers perform regular brood care in small size societies where each brood element is kept in a separate cell. Our results also show that although the queen was not manipulated, and thus remained healthy and fully fertile, she did not control worker egg-laying. Nevertheless, when workers laid eggs, the queen secured a near reproductive monopoly by selectively destroying these eggs, a mechanism known as ‘queen policing’. By contrast, workers destroyed comparatively few queen-laid eggs, but did destroy each other's eggs.

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