The spider mite Tetranychus urticae feeding on artifical diet
Like 1 Dislike 0 Published on 1 Nov 2016
The two-spotted spider mite Tetranychus urticae is an extremely polyphagous crop pest. Recently it has been shown that spider mites can attenuate or even suppress plant defenses. Salivary constituents, notably effectors, have been proposed to play an important role in manipulating plant defenses and might determine the outcome of plant-mite interactions.
In this video ((c) Thomas Van Leeuwen) you can observe a spider mite feeding on artificial diet contained within a small parafilm hemisphere. Addition of a blue colorant to the control diet allowed to verify feeding as assessed by staining of gut contents. During feeding, salivary proteins are secreted into the diet, allowing their collection for nano-LC-MS/MS analysis. A proteomics-based meta-analysis revealed a rich repertoire of mite salivary proteins that might play a role as effectors in plant -mite interactions.
http://www.mcponline.org/content/early/2016/10/04/mcp.M116.058081.abstract