Natural Occurrence of Secondary Bacterial Symbionts in Aphids from Tunisia, with a Focus on Genus Hyalopterus.
Aphids (Hemiptera: Aphididae) can harbor two types of bacterial symbionts. In addition to the obligate endosymbiont Buchnera aphidicola Munson, Baumann and Kinsey 1991 (Enterobacteriales: Enterobacteriaceae), several facultative symbiotic bacteria, called secondary (S) symbionts, have been identified among many important pest aphid species. To determine interpopulational diversity of S-symbionts, we carried out a survey in a total of 18 populations of six aphid species collected from six localities in Tunisia, by performing a diagnostic polymerase chain reaction analysis of partial 16S-23S rRNA operon sequences. While 61.7% of individuals contained only Buchnera, three S-symbionts were found at different frequencies. Arsenophonus sp. Gherna et al. 1991 (Enterobacteriales: Enterobacteriaceae) was found in all species under study except for Acyrtosiphon pisum (Harris 1776) (Aphidinae: Macrosiphini); Serratia symbiotica Moran et al. 2005 (Enterobacteriales: Enterobacteriaceae) was present in all analyzed individuals of A. pisum but only sporadically in Aphis spiraecola (Patch 1914) (Aphidinae: Aphidini) and Hyalopterus amygdali (Blanchard 1840) (Aphidinae: Aphidini), while Hamiltonella defensa Moran et al. 2005 (Enterobacteriales: Enterobacteriaceae) was found in all analyzed individuals of one population of Aphis gossypii (Glover 1877) (Aphidinae: Aphidini) and sporadically in two populations of Hyalopterus. The lysogenic bacteriophage APSE-1 (A. pisum secondary endosymbiont, type 1) was detected in the three populations infected with H. defensa. This bacteriophage has been associated with moderate protection against braconid parasitoids in pea aphids. The high prevalence of Arsenophonus sp. in our samples is in accordance with previous studies indicating that, among gammaproteobacteria, this genus is one of the most widespread insect facultative symbionts.