Life (Apr 2022)

Manipulation of Insect Vectors’ Host Selection Behavior by Barley Yellow Dwarf Virus Is Dependent on the Host Plant Species and Viral Co-Infection

  • Nami Minato,
  • Shuichi Hatori,
  • Azusa Okawa,
  • Kai Nakagawa,
  • Mantaro Hironaka

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/life12050644
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 12, no. 5
p. 644

Abstract

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Previous studies have shown that vector-borne viruses can manipulate the host selection behavior of insect vectors, yet the tripartite interactions of pathogens, host plants and insect vectors have been documented only in a limited number of pathosystems. Here, we report that the host selection behavior of the insect vector of barley yellow dwarf virus-PAV (BYDV-PAV) and cereal yellow dwarf virus-RPS (CYDV-RPS) is dependent on the host plant species and viral co-infection. This study shows that a model cereal plant, Brachypodium distachyon, is a suitable host plant for examining tripartite interactions with BYDV-PAV and CYDV-RPS. We reveal that BYDV-PAV has a different effect on the host selection behavior of its insect vector depending on the host plant species. Viruliferous aphids significantly prefer non-infected plants to virus-infected wheat plants, whereas viral infection on a novel host plant, B. distachyon, is not implicated in the attraction of either viruliferous or nonviruliferous aphids. Furthermore, our findings show that multiple virus infections of wheat with BYDV-PAV and CYDV-RPS alter the preference of their vector aphid. This result indicates that BYDV-PAV acquisition alters the insect vector’s host selection, thereby varying the spread of multiple viruses.

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