Symbionts and hosts behavioral interactions: a study from the perspective of host - parasitoid interactions

Symbiosis is one of the main players in evolution and ecology of organisms. Such intimate interactions may be diverse and have a great impact in biological diversification. One of the main associations that occur in nature is that of insects and microbes. Insect associated microbes are, capable of a...

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Detalhes bibliográficos
Autor: Zitelli, Caio Henrique Lopes
Formato: tesis de maestría
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2018
País:Brasil
Recursos:Universidade de São Paulo (USP)
Repositorio:Biblioteca Digital de Teses e Dissertações da USP
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:teses.usp.br:tde-20032019-155515
Acesso em linha:http://www.teses.usp.br/teses/disponiveis/11/11146/tde-20032019-155515/
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palavra-chave:Comportamento de insetos
Inimigos naturais
Insect behavior
Natural enemies
Parasitism
Parasitismo
Simbiontes
Symbionts
Descrição
Resumo:Symbiosis is one of the main players in evolution and ecology of organisms. Such intimate interactions may be diverse and have a great impact in biological diversification. One of the main associations that occur in nature is that of insects and microbes. Insect associated microbes are, capable of altering a wide range of physiological, behavioral, ecological and evolutionary events for their hosts. Two very common insect microbial symbionts are Wolbachia and Spiroplasma. Wolbachia is also common to other arthropods and nematodes. To better understand how these relations could influence the behavior of insects, we selected two biological systems to investigate how these symbionts can interfere in the host - parasitoid interactions. We investigated the behavior of two species of parasitoids, Aphelinus asychis (Hymenoptera: Aphididae) and Trichogramma pretiosum (Hymenoptera: Trichogrammatidae) when exploting patches with their respective hosts, Aphis citricidus (Hemiptera: Aphididae) and Anagasta kuehniella (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae). In the first case we looked into how Spiroplasma infecting hosts, and in the second case how Wolbachia infecting the parasitoid may affect parasitoid patch exploitation. We recorded the wasp\'s behaviors when exploiting their patches, as well as the aphid defensive behavior in response to parasitoid attack. Our data demonstrate Spiroplasma and Wolbachia influence the parasitoid patch exploitation decisions. Spiroplasma also affected the defense behavior and aggressiveness of A. citricidus in response to A. asychis attack. Wolbachia increased the patch residence time and reduced the successful parasitization of host eggs in T. pretiosum. The understanding of such effects will certainly contribute to provide a better knowledge of the outcome of the associations of insects with microbial symbionts, providing ground base for the proper exploitation of such interactions for biological control purposes.