Sex ratio of mirid populations shifts in response to hostplant co-infestation or altered c

Sex ratio of mirid populations shifts in response to

hostplant co-infestation or altered cytokinin

signalingFA

Nora Adam;Theresa Erler;Mario Kallenbach;Martin Kaltenpoth;Grit Kunert;Ian T Baldwin;Meredith C Schuman

【期刊名称】《植物学报（英文版）》 【年(卷),期】2017(059)001

【摘要】Herbivore species sharing a host plant often compete. In this study, we show that host plant-mediated interaction between two insect herbivores ? a generalist and a specialist ? results in a sex ratio shift of the specialist’s offspring. We studied demographic parameters of the specialist Tupiocoris notatus (Hemiptera: Miridae) when co-infesting the host plant Nicotiana attenuata (Solanaceae) with the generalist leafhopper Empoasca sp. (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae). We show that the usually female-biased sex ratio of T. notatus shifts toward a higher male proportion in the offspring on plants co-infested by Empoasca sp. This sex ratio change did not occur after oviposition, nor is it due differential mortality of female and male nymphs. Based on pyrosequencing and PCR of bacterial 16S rRNA amplicons, we concluded that sex ratio shifts were unlikely to be due to infection with Wolbachia or other known sex ratio-distorting endo-symbionts. Finally, we used transgenic lines of N. attenuata to evaluate if the sex ratio shift could be mediated