Effect of temperature on the pathogenicity of entomopathogenic nematodes (Steinernema and Heterorhabditis spp.) to Delia radicum

Susceptibility of last instarlarvae of Delia radicum to Steinernema feltiae, S. carpocapsae,S. arenarium, Heterorhabditismegidis and H. bacteriophora wasevaluated in the laboratory at 10 °C,15 °C and 20 °C. S. feltiaewas the only species that killed the larvae at10 °C; S. carpocapsae, S.arenarium and H. megidis were effectiveat 15–20 °C whereas H.bacteriophora killed the maggot only at20 °C. The temperature significantlyaffected the host searching ability of alltested species. Mobility was reduced at lowtemperatures. Significant effects of the hostpresence on nematode mobility were found forS. feltiae, S. arenarium and H. megidis but not for S. carpocapsaeand H. bacteriophora. The dynamics of theattachment to and penetration into the hostwere monitored for S. feltiae at10 °C, 15 °C or 20 °C and forS. carpocapsae at 20 °C. In theperiod of 6–30 hours after inoculation, S.carpocapsae attached in higher number at20 °C than did S. feltiae at alltemperatures. At 20 °C, S.carpocapsae penetrated the host only after 30hours while S. feltiae penetrated alreadyafter 15, 9, 6 hours at 10 °C,15 °C and 20 °C, respectively.     

乙型肝炎病毒的水平传播和围产期传播

在上海、河北、黑龙江和四川四省市调查了4 500名子女及其母亲的HBsAg阳性率。结果表明,HBsAg阳性母亲的子女,受水平和围产期传播的共同作用,其HBsAg阳性危险性显著高于单纯受水平传播作用的HBsAg阴性母亲的子女。HBsAg阴性母亲的74名HBsAg阳性子女,二年后11人转阴,年龄越大,阴转率呈越高的趋势,而HBsAg阳性母亲的31名阳性子女仅1例转阴,即后者的携带率(96.77％)高于前者(85.13％)。但就人群中HBsAg阳性和携带者的构成而言,仅32.25％的HBsAg的携带者,来源于受双重传播作用的HBsAg阳性母亲。换言之,水平传播的权重明显大于围产期传播,故阻断围产期传播的同时还应预防水平传播。     

Subterranean clover mottle sobemovirus: its host range, resistance in subterranean clover and transmission through seed and by grazing animals

Subterranean clover mottle sobemovirus (SCMV) was transmitted by manual inoculation of sap to 27 cultivars belonging to three sub-species of subterranean clover. The virus readily infected systemically all inoculated plants of five susceptible cultivars of ssp. subterraneum. Ten others showed partial resistance as not all infected plants developed systemic infection; cold winter conditions further delayed or prevented systemic movement in four of them. Two cultivars of spp. brachycalycinum and four of spp. yanninicum failed to develop systemic infection following inoculation and were considered highly resistant. Resistance to SCMV in three of the spp. yanninicum was further confirmed by the failure to establish detectable primary infections in most of the inoculated leaves. Moreover, when the four ssp. yanninicum cultivars were graft-inoculated with SCMV, systemic infection eventually developed in them but the virus concentration was low. SCMV was also transmitted by manual inoculation of sap to a further 23 species of Trifolium, Medicago or Pisum. Three species were non-hosts, five were infected only in inoculated leaves and 18 others developed systemic infection in some or all plants. SCMV reached very high concentrations and was stable in subterranean clover sap. It was transmitted experimentally between subterranean clover plants by brushing infected leaves against healthy ones and in swards was readily transmitted by the trampling and grazing of sheep, but only poorly by mowing. Seed transmission of SCMV to seedlings of five cultivars of subterranean clover was low (0–0.12%). SCMV was not transmitted by Myzus persicae.     

大菜粉蝶根虫瘟霉菌株转染小菜蛾后侵染力变化及其与寄主血淋巴酚氧化酶活性的关系

源于大菜粉蝶Pieris brassicae的根虫瘟霉Zoophthora radicans菌株R₀通过反复转染小菜蛾Plutella xylostella而分别获得转染菌株R₁、R₃和R₅。用这些菌株对小菜蛾2龄幼虫进行生物测定,发现菌株对寄主的侵染力有随转染次数增加而增强的趋势。接种后第1～6 天,R₀的LC₂₀（孢子数/mm²）分别为14.7、14.5、9.0、7.1、6.0和5.5;R₁的LC₂₀分别为9.6、5.0、4.2、3.6、3.1和3.0;R₃的LC₂₀分别为4.6、2.9、2.8、2.5、2.4和2.2; R₅的LC₂₀分别为5.2、3.7、3.2、2.8、2.6和2.6,接种后同一天菌株 R₃的LC₂₀值最小即侵染力最强。各菌株感染小菜蛾幼虫后可显著激活寄主血淋巴中的酚氧化酶活性,但R₁、R₃和R₅对酚氧化酶的激活程度显著低于原始菌株R₀。各菌株对小菜蛾的侵染力强弱指标log₁₀ (LC₂₀)与其侵染后寄主血淋巴酚氧化酶活性呈明显正相关（0.852<0.95）,表明R0在对新寄主转染过程中逐渐获得了逃避或克服新寄主免疫防御的能力,从而增强对新寄主的侵染力。     

Wolbachia infection in six species of gall wasps and their parasitoids

Wolbachia are endosymbiotic bacteria that are widely present in nematodes and arthropods and sometimes have a significant impact on the evolution, ecology, and biology of their hosts. The co-occurrence of Wolbachia within both Cynipid gall wasps and their parasitoids has rarely been studied. In this study, we report the occurrence of six species of gall wasps and 10 species of their parasitoids in central China. Wolbachia detection using the wsp gene showed that Wolbachia infected two species of gall wasps as well as their parasitoids, indicating that horizontal transmission of Wolbachia occurs between gall wasps and their parasitoids. Given that parasitoids will kill their hosts, Wolbachia may be horizontally transferred from gall wasps to their parasitoids. Using multilocus sequence typing (MLST) analysis, five new strains of Wolbachia were identified, all of which belonged to supergroup A. The strains of Wolbachia that infected gall wasps were not the same as those that infected their parasitoids. This result indicated that Wolbachia may evolve independently in parasitoids after they have been transferred from the host gall wasps.     

Relative importance of components affecting the leaf rust progress curve in wheat

Summary The relative importance of various components (latent period, uredium area, infectious period, infectibility, sporulation and weather) affecting the progress of leaf rust (Puccinia recondita) in wheat, in the field, was determined by calculating the effect of equivalent changes in the individual components. The effect was calculated in terms of the period of delay in the epidemic reaching 100 per cent severity of leaf rust. Only four components viz., latent period, infectibility, sporulation and weather were found to be important. Further, it was found that these four components were equally important and that they collectively determined the rate of progress of leaf rust in an additive manner.     

Interference and the persistence of vertically transmitted parasites

Given their ubiquity in nature, understanding the factors that allow the persistence of multiple enemies and in particular vertically transmitted parasites (VTPs) is of considerable importance. Here a model that allows a virulent VTP to be maintained in a system containing a host and a horizontally transmitted parasite (HTP) is analysed. The method of persistence relies on the VTP offering the host a level of protection from the HTP. The VTP is assumed to reduce the HTPs ability to transmit to the host through ecological interference. We show that VTPs are more likely to persist with HTPs that prevent host reproduction than with those that allow it. The VTP persists more easily in r-selected hosts and with highly transmittable HTPs. As the level of protection through interference increases the densities of the host also increase. We also show that VTPs when they do persist tend to stabilise the host population cycles produced by free-living HTPs. The study raised questions about persistence of diseases through interactions with others, and also the stabilising effects of VTPs on dynamical systems in a biological control context.     

Transmission of Plodia interpunctella granulosis virus does not conform to the mass action model

1. Transmission of insect pathogens is traditionally described by a term which states that transmission is proportional to the densities of the susceptible hosts and the infectious units, multiplied by a constant, the transmission coefficient. Theoretical studies suggest that deviations from this can be important in host–pathogen population dynamics, but little is known of how commonly pathogen transmission conforms to the conventional model.
2. We describe a test of the traditional assumption for the Indian meal moth, Plodia interpunctella (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae) (Hübner) and its granulosis virus using a modification of the previous methods, which allows for unpredictable declines in the amount of infectious material present.
3. The estimated transmission coefficient increased with the density of susceptible hosts and showed a marked decline with density of infectious cadavers. This suggests that the usual assumption does not adequately describe transmission in this system.
4. The reasons for this deviation from the usual assumption are likely to be a combination of behavioural and physiological changes at high host density, and differential susceptibility to the pathogen leading to an effect analogous to pseudo-interference in parasitoids.     

Plasmids captured in <Emphasis Type="Italic">C</Emphasis>. <Emphasis Type="Italic">metallidurans</Emphasis> CH34: defining the PromA family of broad-host-range plasmids

The self-transmissible, broad-host-range (BHR) plasmid pMOL98 was previously isolated from polluted soil using a triparental plasmid capture approach and shown to possess a replicon similar to that of the BHR plasmids pSB102 and pIPO2. Here, complete sequence analysis and comparative genomics reveal that the 55.5 kb nucleotide sequence of pMOL98 shows extensive sequence similarity and synteny with the BHR plasmid family that now includes pIPO2, pSB102, pTER331, and pMRAD02. They share a plasmid backbone comprising replication, partitioning and conjugative transfer functions. Comparison of the variable accessory regions of these plasmids shows that the majority of natural transposons, as well as the mini-transposon used to mark the plasmids, are inserted in the parA locus. The transposon unique to pMOL98 appears to have inserted from the chromosome of the recipient strain used in the plasmid capture procedure. This demonstrates the necessity for careful screening of plasmids and host chromosomes to avoid mis-interpretation of plasmid genome content. The presence of very similar BHR plasmids with different accessory genes in geographically distinct locations suggests an important role in horizontal gene exchange and bacterial adaptation for this recently defined plasmid group, which we propose to name “PromA”. Electronic supplementary material  The online version of this article (doi:) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.