Abstract

Characterization of Microbial Diversity associated with Cor Leaf Aphid, Rhopalosiphum maidis (Fitch) infesting Wheat Crop

Poonam Jasrotia, Senior Scientist, Indian Institute of Wheat and Barley Research

Associations among insects and microbes can lead to beneficial or parasitic interactions. Using 16S microbiome profiling sequencing, we compared microbiome diversity and abundance among field-collected populations of the corn leaf aphid, Rhopalosiphum maidis (Fitch) infesting tolerant wheat variety, HD 2967 and susceptible genotype, A-9-30-1. The number of observed bacterial species was comparatively higher (384) and diverse (alpha diversity: 1.66) in aphid collected from tolerant variety HD 2967 than 359 species and 0.84 alpha diversity in susceptible genotype A-9-30-1. The fungal species associated with aphid collected from HD 2967 was 179 with alpha diversity of 3.35 as compared to 61 species with diversity 2.83 in A-9-30-1. Our results suggested that Buchnera (relative abundance of 92.1%) and Pseudomonas (3.7%) were the major bacteria associated with R. maidis collected from A-9-30-1, but in HD 2967, Buchnera was the only abundant species (78.6 %).The major fungal genus associated with aphids were Filobasidium, Alternaria and Cladosporium with relative abundance of 44.5%,12.5% and 10.4% in aphid collected from susceptible wheat genotype, A-9-30-1.Our results will allow for improved comparative aphid-symbiont research and broaden our understanding of the interactions among insects, endosymbionts and their environments in wheat crop.