Host plant effects on alkaline phosphatase activity in the whiteflies, Bemisia tabaci Biotype B and Trialeurodes vaporariorum
1State Key Laboratory for Biology of Plant Diseases and Insect Pests, Institute of Plant Protection, Chinese
Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100094, PR China
2Key Laboratory of Entomology and Pest Control Engineering, College of Plant Protection, Southwest University,
Chongqing 400716, PR China
3Department of Entomology, Texas A&M University of USA, TX, USA
Abstract
Bemisia tabaci (Gennadius) B-biotype and Trialeurodes vaporariorum (Westwood) (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae) often coexist on greenhouse-grown vegetable crops in northern China. The recent spread of B. tabaci B-biotype has largely replaced T. vaporariorum, and B-biotype now overlaps with T. vaporariorum where common hosts occur in most invaded areas. The impact of the Bbiotype on the agroecosystem appears to be widespread, and involves the ability to compete with and perhaps replace other phytophages like T. vaporariorum. An emerging hypothesis is that the B-biotype is physiologically superior due at least in part to an improved ability to metabolically utilize the alkaline phosphatase pathway. To test this hypothesis, alkaline phosphatase activity was studied in the B-biotype and T. vaporariorum after feeding on a number of different hosts for a range of durations, with and without host switching. Alkaline phosphatase activity in T. vaporariorum was 1.45 to 2.53-fold higher than that of the B-biotype when fed on tomato for 4 and 24 h, or switched from tomato to cotton and cabbage for the same durations. However, alkaline phosphatase activity in the B-biotype was 1.40 to 3.35-fold higher than that of T. vaporariorum when the host switching time was ~72 and ~120 h on the same plant. Both shortterm (4 h) and long-term (72 h) switching of plant hosts can significantly affect the alkaline phosphatase activity in the two species. After ~120 h, feeding on tomato and cotton alkaline phosphatase activity in the B-biotype was significantly higher than that of T. vaporariorum. It was shown that alkaline phosphatase aids the species feeding on different plant species, and that the B-biotype is physiologically superior to T. vaporariorum in utilizing the enzyme compared to T. vaporariorum over longer periods of feeding.
Keywords: greenhouse whitefly, invasion, saliva, sclerotization, silverleaf whitefly, sucrose metabolism
Abbreviations: ALP, alkaline phosphatase
Correspondence:
awilleve_yy@yahoo.com.cn,
bpl526520@163.com,
cliuwx@cjac.org.cn,
d*wanfh@caas.net.cn,
emharris@tamu.edu, *Corresponding author
Editor: TX Liu was editor of this paper.
Received: 2 September 2009 | Accepted: 8 March 2010 | Published: 27 January 2011
Copyright: This is an open access paper. We use the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license that permits unrestricted use, provided that the paper is properly attributed.
ISSN: 1536-2442 | Volume 11, Number 9
Yan Y, Peng L , Liu W-X, Wan F-H, Harris MK. 2011. Host plant effects on alkaline phosphatase activity in the whiteflies, Bemisia tabaci Biotype B and Trialeurodes vaporariorum. Journal of Insect Science 11:9 available online: insectscience.org/11.9
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