MetazExp-Summary

Acyrthosiphon pisum

Acyrthosiphon pisum, commonly known as the pea aphid (and colloquially known as the green dolphin, pea louse, and clover louse), is a sap sucking insect in the family Aphididae. It feeds on several species of legumes (plant family Fabaceae) worldwide, including forage crops, such as pea, clover, alfalfa, and broad bean,and ranks among the aphid species of major agronomical importance. The pea aphid is a model organism for biological study whose genome has been sequenced and annotated.
A. pisum is considered as the model aphid species. Its reproductive cycle, including the sexual phase a... Click to show allAcyrthosiphon pisum, commonly known as the pea aphid (and colloquially known as the green dolphin, pea louse, and clover louse), is a sap sucking insect in the family Aphididae. It feeds on several species of legumes (plant family Fabaceae) worldwide, including forage crops, such as pea, clover, alfalfa, and broad bean,and ranks among the aphid species of major agronomical importance. The pea aphid is a model organism for biological study whose genome has been sequenced and annotated.
A. pisum is considered as the model aphid species. Its reproductive cycle, including the sexual phase and the overwintering of eggs, can be easily completed on host plants under laboratory conditions, and the relatively large size of individuals facilitates physiological studies. In 2010, the International Aphid Genomics Consortium published an annotated draft sequence of the pea aphid genome composed of approximately 525 megabases and 34000 predicted genes in 2n=8 chromosomes. This constitutes the first genome of a hemimetabolous insect to have been published. The pea aphid genome and other of its features are the focus of studies covering the following areas:
Symbiosis with bacteria - As all Aphididae, A. pisum hosts the primary endosymbiont Buchnera aphidicola, which provides essential amino acids and is necessary for aphid reproduction. Buchnera is transmitted from mothers to offspring, and it has coevolved with aphids for dozens of million of years. A. pisum also hosts a range of facultative bacterial symbionts that can be transmitted maternally and horizontally, and which affect ecologically important traits in aphids, such as body color, resistance to abiotic and biotic stress, and nutrition.
Polyphenism (the production of several discrete morphs by the same genotype) - Studies on pea aphids have helped to establish the environmental and genetic components controlling the production of sexual and winged morphs, among other features.
Asexual reproduction - Pea aphid lineages include parthenogenesis in their life cycles, and some have even lost the sexual phase. Pea aphids are models for deciphering the origin and consequences of asexual reproduction, an important question in evolutionary biology.
Polymorphism and physiology explaining phenotypic variations in aphids - Loci and physiological mechanisms underlying body color, reproductive cycle and the presence of wings in males (which is genetically based) have been identified in pea aphids or are being investigated. A. pisum is notable for being the only animal organism so-far identified that has the ability to synthesize a carotenoid. Plants, fungi, and microorganisms can synthesize carotenoids, but torulene (3,4-didehydro-β,γ-carotene, specifically a hydrocarbon carotene) made by pea aphids, is the only carotenoid known to be synthesized by an organism in the animal kingdom. Torulene imparts natural, red-colored patches to some aphids, which possibly aid in their camouflage and escape from predation by wasps. The aphids have gained the ability to synthesize torulene by horizontal gene transfer of a number of genes for carotenoid synthesis, apparently from fungi.
Gene duplication and expansion of gene families - The pea aphid genome presents high levels of gene duplication compared to other insect genomes, such as Drosophila, with the notable expansion of some gene families.
Interaction with host plants and speciation - As most phloem feeders, the pea aphid is adapted to feeding on a limited set of plants. Studies on pea aphids have identified candidate loci, molecular and physiological mechanisms that are involved in host nutrition and virulence. Genetic, molecular and physiological studies have also evidenced specialization to different host species as a motor of ecological speciation between pea aphid biotypes.
[More Details from WIKIPEDIA]

Genome

Assembly version	IWGSC(Ensembl)
Original gene/transcript	37522/37522
Improved transcript	7882
Improved exons	177718
Improved splices	152602
Alternative splicing events	21929

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Studies