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Screening candidate effectors from the salivary gland transcriptomes of brown citrus aphid, Aphis citricidus

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Abstract

The brown citrus aphid, Aphis citricidus, stands out as an important citrus pest that is an efficient vector for Citrus tristeza virus (CTV), the causal agent of important economic losses in citrus. Evidence suggests that aphids deliver salivary effector proteins inside their host cells to modulate plant physiology, suppress defense responses, and consequently favor the establishment and infestation. This study employed deep sequencing of RNA libraries to create a transcriptome of the salivary gland. Screening the transcriptome identified 115 unigenes encoding putatively secreted effector proteins. Eleven A. citricidus effectors exhibiting relatively low sequence identities were selected for gene expression analysis. Among them, six effectors (i.e., AcE1, AcE2, AcE3, AcE5, AcE8, and AcE9) displayed remarkably high expression levels in the head with salivary glands; AcE4 was highly expressed in both head and gut tissue. Further transient overexpression revealed that AcE4 could effectively inhibit INF1/BAX-induced leaf chlorosis in Nicotiana benthamiana leaves, implying its potential role in inhibiting plant defense mechanisms against aphid feeding. The findings of this study demonstrate the in silico identification of effector proteins from A. citricidus. Further investigation and analysis of these effectors, like as AcE4, will provide valuable knowledge regarding the molecular mechanisms that govern the interaction between aphids and plants.

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Acknowledgements

The authors wish to acknowledge the assistance of **g Zhao, Wenhui Tong, and Sha Ye with the aphid samples.

Funding

This work is funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant no. 32160634), the Natural Science Foundation for Distinguished Young Scholars of Jiangxi province (grant no. 20212ACB215001), and the Double Thousand Plan of Jiangxi Province (grant no. jxsq2019101058).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ganzhou Key Laboratory of Nanling Insect Biology/National Navel Orange Engineering Research Center, College of Life Sciences, Gannan Normal University, Ganzhou, Jiangxi, China

    Chaozhi Shangguan, Yinhui Kuang, Zhiqin Chen & **udao Yu

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  1. Chaozhi Shangguan
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  2. Yinhui Kuang
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  3. Zhiqin Chen
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  4. **udao Yu
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Contributions

XY conceived the study; CS and YK reared the insects and conducted the laboratory work; XY, CS, YK, and ZC carried out the analyses; XY wrote the manuscript.

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Correspondence to **udao Yu.

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Shangguan, C., Kuang, Y., Chen, Z. et al. Screening candidate effectors from the salivary gland transcriptomes of brown citrus aphid, Aphis citricidus. Arthropod-Plant Interactions (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11829-024-10071-8

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