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Identification of a microspordium isolated from Megacopta cribraria (Hemiptera: Plataspidae) and characterization of its pathogenicity in silkworms

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Abstract

A new microsporidium isolated from Megacopta cribraria was characterized by both biological characteristics and phylogenetic analysis. Moreover, its pathogenicity to silkworms was also studied. The spores are oval in shape and measured 3.64 ± 0.2 × 2.20 ± 0.2 μm in size. Its ultrastructure is characteristic of the genus Nosema: a diplokaryon, 13–14 polar filament coils and posterior vacuole. Its life cycle includes meronts, sporonts, sporoblasts and mature spores, with a typical diplokaryon in each stage and propagation in a binary fission. A phylogenetic tree based on SSU rRNA and rRNA ITS gene sequence analysis further indicated that the parasite is closely related to Nosema bombycis and should be placed in the genus Nosema and sub-group ‘true’ Nosema. Furthermore, the microsporidium heavily infects lepidopteran silkworm insect and can be transmitted per os (horizontally) and transovarially (vertically). Our findings showed that the microsporidium belongs to the ‘true’ Nosema group within the genus Nosema and heavily infects silkworms. Based on the information obtained during this study, we named this new microsporidium isolated from M. cribraria as Nosema sp. MC.

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful for Dr Sun J.C. and all our partners for their kind help and advice. This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC; No. 31201856) and the Presidential Foundation of the Guangdong Academy of Agricultural Sciences (201434).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Sericulture and Agri-Food Research Institute, Guangdong Academy of Agricultural Sciences, No. 133 Dongguanzhuang Yiheng Road, Guangzhou, 510610, China

    Dongxu Xing, Li Li, Sentai Liao, Guoqing Luo, Qingrong Li, Yang Xiao, Fanwei Dai & Qiong Yang

  2. State Key Laboratory of Silkworm Genome Biology, Southwest University, Chongqing, 400715, China

    Dongxu Xing

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  1. Dongxu Xing
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Correspondence to Qiong Yang.

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Xing, D., Li, L., Liao, S. et al. Identification of a microspordium isolated from Megacopta cribraria (Hemiptera: Plataspidae) and characterization of its pathogenicity in silkworms. Antonie van Leeuwenhoek 106, 1061–1069 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10482-014-0269-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10482-014-0269-2

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