Ecological Factors Associated with the Distribution of Bemisia tabaci Cryptic Species and Their Facultative Endosymbionts

• Published in: Insects (Basel, Switzerland) Vol. 14; no. 3; p. 252
• Main Authors: Li, Hongran, Jiang, Zhihui, Zhou, Jincheng, Liu, Xin, Zhang, Youjun, Chu, Dong
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 02-03-2023; MDPI
• Subjects: Bemisia tabaci; Candidatus Cardinium; Coastal zone; Correlation analysis; Cryptic species; Cytochrome; Cytochrome oxidase I; Cytochromes; Distribution patterns; Ecological effects; ecological niche; Ecological niches; Endosymbionts; Environmental factors; facultative endosymbionts; Geographical distribution; Geography; Haplotypes; Heat resistance; High temperature; Indigenous species; Infections; Introduced species; Invasive species; Mitochondria; multiple infection; native cryptic species; Nonnative species; Nucleotide sequence; Phylogenetics; Plant viruses; Precipitation; Quantitative distribution; Range extension; Rickettsia; Temperature tolerance; Variance analysis; Viruses; China; native cryptic species; multiple infection; facultative endosymbionts; ecological niche; Bemisia tabaci
• ISSN: 2075-4450; 2075-4450
• DOI: 10.3390/insects14030252

The sweetpotato whitefly,
species complex, comprises at least 44 morphologically indistinguishable cryptic species, whose endosymbiont infection patterns often varied at the spatial and temporal dimension. However, the effects of ecological factors (e.g., climatic or geographical factors) on the distribution of whitefly and the infection frequencies of their endosymbionts have not been fully elucidated. We, here, analyzed the associations between ecological factors and the distribution of whitefly and their three facultative endosymbionts (Candidatus
, Candidatus
, and
sp.) by screening 665 individuals collected from 29 geographical localities across China. The study identified eight
species via mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase I (mt
) gene sequence alignment: two invasive species, MED (66.9%) and MEAM1 (12.2%), and six native cryptic species (20.9%), which differed in distribution patterns, ecological niches, and high suitability areas. The infection frequencies of the three endosymbionts in different cryptic species were distinct and multiple infections were relatively common in
MED populations. Furthermore, the annual mean temperature positively affected
sp. and
sp. infection frequencies in
MED but negatively affected the quantitative distribution of
MED, which indicates that
sp. and
sp. maybe play a crucial role in the thermotolerance of
MED, although the host whitefly per se exhibits no resistance to high temperature. Our findings revealed the complex effects of ecological factors on the expansion of the invasive whitefly.