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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, August 2009, p. 5328-5335, Vol. 75, No. 16
0099-2240/09/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/AEM.00717-09
Copyright © 2009, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Evolution and Diversity of Facultative Symbionts from the Aphid Subfamily Lachninae{triangledown} ,{dagger}

Gaelen R. Burke,1* Benjamin B. Normark,2 Colin Favret,3 and Nancy A. Moran1

Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Arizona, 1041 East Lowell Street, Tucson, Arizona 85721-0088,1 Department of Plant, Soil, and Insect Sciences, University of Massachusetts, 270 Stockbridge Road, Amherst, Massachusetts 01003,2 AphidNet, LLC, 18901 Tributary Lane, Gaithersburg, Maryland 208793

Received 27 March 2009/ Accepted 11 June 2009

Many aphids harbor a variety of endosymbiotic bacteria. The functions of these symbionts can range from an obligate nutritional role to a facultative role in protecting their hosts against environmental stresses. One such symbiont is "Candidatus Serratia symbiotica," which is involved in defense against heat and potentially also in aphid nutrition. Lachnid aphids have been the focus of several recent studies investigating the transition of this symbiont from a facultative symbiont to an obligate symbiont. In a phylogenetic analysis of Serratia symbionts from 51 lachnid hosts, we found that diversity in symbiont morphology, distribution, and function is due to multiple independent origins of symbiosis from ancestors belonging to Serratia and possibly also to evolution within distinct symbiont clades. Our results do not support cocladogenesis of "Ca. Serratia symbiotica" with Cinara subgenus Cinara species and weigh against an obligate nutritional role. Finally, we show that species belonging to the subfamily Lachninae have a high incidence of facultative symbiont infection.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Arizona, 1041 E. Lowell St., Tucson, AZ 85721-0088. Phone: (520) 626-8344. Fax: (520) 621-9190. E-mail: gburke{at}arizona.edu

{triangledown} Published ahead of print on 19 June 2009.

{dagger} Supplemental material for this article may be found at http://aem.asm.org/.

Applied and Environmental Microbiology, August 2009, p. 5328-5335, Vol. 75, No. 16
0099-2240/09/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/AEM.00717-09
Copyright © 2009, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.





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