Biology and Ecology of Aphids

About this book

Most people know of aphids as garden pests, infesting the soft green tissues of plants in vast numbers and killing them by sucking out the sap. Indeed, among the 4,000 or so known species of aphids about 250 are pests, and in temperate regions several are economically important agricultural pests that damage crops directly during feeding or act as vectors for plant pathogens. But aphids are also important model organisms in evolutionary biology and ecology because they combine a number of unique features such as complex life cycles involving the development of morphological distinct phenotypes (polyphenism), sexual and asexual reproduction strategies and changes of host plants.

Aphids can also be regarded as holobionts because they are colonized by obligate and facultative microbes which enable them to feed exclusively on phloem sap and influence their resistance against pathogens, parasitoids or environmental stress. Biology and Ecology of Aphids combines fundamental information about aphids with chapters addressing state-of-the-art research in topics such as aphid-related phylogeny, genome biology, epigenetics and chemical ecology. The chapters have been compiled by experts in the field to provide a valuable and accessible source of information for researchers and for students in biology, ecology and agriculture.

Contents

Phylogeny of the Aphids
Lars Podsiadlowski

The Ontogenesis of the Pea Aphid Acyrthosiphon pisum
Henrike Schmidtberg

Functional and Evolutionary Genomics in Aphids
Denis Tagu, Federica Calevro, Stefano Colella, Toni Gabaldón and Akiko Sugio

Epigenetic Control of Polyphenism in Aphids
Krishnendu Mukherjee and Arne F. Baudach

Bacterial Symbionts of Aphids (Hemiptera: Aphididae)
Marisa Skaljac

Aphid Immunity
Andreas Vilcinskas

Aphid Molecular Stress Biology
Laramy S. Enders and Nicholas J. Miller

The Effect of Plant Within-Species Variation on Aphid Ecology
Sharon E. Zytynska and Wolfgang Weisser

Chemical Ecology of Aphids (Hemiptera: Aphididae)
Antoine Boullis and François J. Verheggen

Aphid Honeydew: Rubbish or Signaler
Klaus H. Hoffmann

Function of Aphid Saliva in Aphid-Plant Interaction
Torsten Will

Biotechnological Approaches to Aphid Management
Benjamin R. Deist and Bryony C. Bonning

Aphid Techniques
Torsten Will

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