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Translocation of Loline Alkaloids in Epichloë-Infected Cereal and Pasture Grasses: What the Insects Tell Us

Aphids are major pests of cereal and pasture grasses throughout the world, vectoring disease and reducing plant production. There are few control options other than insecticides. Epichloë endophytes that produce loline alkaloids in their hosts provide a possible mechanism of control, with both meado...

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Autores principales: Popay, Alison J., Jensen, Joanne G., Simpson, Wayne R., Mace, Wade J., Somchit, Chanatda
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9865534/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36675917
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/jof9010096
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author Popay, Alison J.
Jensen, Joanne G.
Simpson, Wayne R.
Mace, Wade J.
Somchit, Chanatda
author_facet Popay, Alison J.
Jensen, Joanne G.
Simpson, Wayne R.
Mace, Wade J.
Somchit, Chanatda
author_sort Popay, Alison J.
collection PubMed
description Aphids are major pests of cereal and pasture grasses throughout the world, vectoring disease and reducing plant production. There are few control options other than insecticides. Epichloë endophytes that produce loline alkaloids in their hosts provide a possible mechanism of control, with both meadow fescue and tall fescue naturally infected with loline-producing endophytes showing a resistance to Rhopalosiphum padi. We screened Elymus spp. naturally infected with endophytes that produced loline alkaloids at concentrations known to affect aphids on fescue but found no effect on these insects infesting Elymus. A synthetic loline-producing endophyte association with rye also had no effect on the aphids. After hypothesizing that the lolines were being translocated in the xylem in Elymus and rye rather than the phloem, we tested the rye and meadow fescue infected with loline-producing endophytes against a xylem feeding spittlebug. The endophyte in rye inhibited the feeding of the insect and reduced its survival, whereas the endophyte-infected meadow fescue had no effect on the spittlebug but reduced the number of aphids. Lolines applied to the potting medium of endophyte-free and endophyte-infected rye, ryegrass, and tall fescue resulted in a decrease in the aphid populations on the endophyte-free pasture grasses relative to the untreated controls but had no effect on aphid numbers on the rye. We tentatively conclude that lolines, produced in both natural and synthetic association with Elymus and rye, are partitioned in the xylem rather than the phloem, where they are inaccessible to aphids.
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spelling pubmed-98655342023-01-22 Translocation of Loline Alkaloids in Epichloë-Infected Cereal and Pasture Grasses: What the Insects Tell Us Popay, Alison J. Jensen, Joanne G. Simpson, Wayne R. Mace, Wade J. Somchit, Chanatda J Fungi (Basel) Article Aphids are major pests of cereal and pasture grasses throughout the world, vectoring disease and reducing plant production. There are few control options other than insecticides. Epichloë endophytes that produce loline alkaloids in their hosts provide a possible mechanism of control, with both meadow fescue and tall fescue naturally infected with loline-producing endophytes showing a resistance to Rhopalosiphum padi. We screened Elymus spp. naturally infected with endophytes that produced loline alkaloids at concentrations known to affect aphids on fescue but found no effect on these insects infesting Elymus. A synthetic loline-producing endophyte association with rye also had no effect on the aphids. After hypothesizing that the lolines were being translocated in the xylem in Elymus and rye rather than the phloem, we tested the rye and meadow fescue infected with loline-producing endophytes against a xylem feeding spittlebug. The endophyte in rye inhibited the feeding of the insect and reduced its survival, whereas the endophyte-infected meadow fescue had no effect on the spittlebug but reduced the number of aphids. Lolines applied to the potting medium of endophyte-free and endophyte-infected rye, ryegrass, and tall fescue resulted in a decrease in the aphid populations on the endophyte-free pasture grasses relative to the untreated controls but had no effect on aphid numbers on the rye. We tentatively conclude that lolines, produced in both natural and synthetic association with Elymus and rye, are partitioned in the xylem rather than the phloem, where they are inaccessible to aphids. MDPI 2023-01-10 /pmc/articles/PMC9865534/ /pubmed/36675917 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/jof9010096 Text en © 2023 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Popay, Alison J.
Jensen, Joanne G.
Simpson, Wayne R.
Mace, Wade J.
Somchit, Chanatda
Translocation of Loline Alkaloids in Epichloë-Infected Cereal and Pasture Grasses: What the Insects Tell Us
title Translocation of Loline Alkaloids in Epichloë-Infected Cereal and Pasture Grasses: What the Insects Tell Us
title_full Translocation of Loline Alkaloids in Epichloë-Infected Cereal and Pasture Grasses: What the Insects Tell Us
title_fullStr Translocation of Loline Alkaloids in Epichloë-Infected Cereal and Pasture Grasses: What the Insects Tell Us
title_full_unstemmed Translocation of Loline Alkaloids in Epichloë-Infected Cereal and Pasture Grasses: What the Insects Tell Us
title_short Translocation of Loline Alkaloids in Epichloë-Infected Cereal and Pasture Grasses: What the Insects Tell Us
title_sort translocation of loline alkaloids in epichloë-infected cereal and pasture grasses: what the insects tell us
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9865534/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36675917
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/jof9010096
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