PEA APHID CONTROL, 2005

Pea Aphid

Genetic Control of Contagious Asexuality in the Pea Aphid

Although evolutionary transitions from sexual to asexual reproduction are frequent in eukaryotes, the genetic bases of such shifts toward asexuality remain largely unknown. We addressed this issue in an aphid species where both sexual and obligate asexual lineages coexist in natural populations. These sexual and asexual lineages may occasionally interbreed because some asexual lineages maintain...

Role of nitrogen content of pea (Pisum sativum L.) on pea aphid (Acyrthosiphon pisum Harris) establishment

The leaf nitrogen content is generally accepted as an indicator of food quality and as a factor affecting host selection by phytophagous insects. The alate pea aphids (Acyrthosiphon pisum Harris, Aphididae) were given a choice among non-nodulated pea plants (Pisum sativum L.) supplied with one of four nitrate-N levels (0, 3, 15 and 30 mM). When whole plants were exposed to aphids for 7 days, th...

Oxidation of carbohydrates by the pea aphid, Macrosiphum pisi (Kltb.).

The nutrition and metabolism of aphids are of interest to biochemists, since these important pests depend upon leaf cell sap for their nutrition and excrete large amounts of carbohydrate and amino acids (1, 2). This suggests that they may have some special nutritional requirements (3), and that their carbohydrate metabolism may possess unusual features. The evidence obtained to date indicates t...

Genome Sequence of the Pea Aphid Acyrthosiphon pisum

Aphids are important agricultural pests and also biological models for studies of insect-plant interactions, symbiosis, virus vectoring, and the developmental causes of extreme phenotypic plasticity. Here we present the 464 Mb draft genome assembly of the pea aphid Acyrthosiphon pisum. This first published whole genome sequence of a basal hemimetabolous insect provides an outgroup to the multip...