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Whiteflies and plant viruses can help each other to speed up biological invasion

e B whitefly on virus-infected plants reached 2-13 times that on healthy plants in 56 days. No doubt increase of infectious whiteflies will in turn speed up virus pandemics. In contrast, the indigenous whitefly performed similarly on healthy and virus-infected plants.

"This is the first study that shows an invasive insect has such a mutualistic relationship with the viruses it transmits, whereas its indigenous counterpart does not," said Professor Shu-Sheng Liu, corresponding author of the study, from the Institute of Insect Sciences, Zhejiang University. "We believe that the mutualism between the B whitefly and the viruses may contribute to the ability of the B whitefly to both invade and displace indigenous whiteflies, as well as causing disease pandemics of the viruses associated with this vector."

The study also shows that infection of the whiteflies per se has limited effects on the survival and fecundity of the vectors, and the B whitefly acquires the benefits through feeding on the virus-infected plants. Thus the mutualism is indirect. The researchers believe that this kind of mutualism may exist in many circumstances and should receive more attention in the research and management of biological invasions.
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Source:Public Library of Science


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