December 5, 2013

Crop-Infecting Virus Forces Aphids To Spread Disease





About this research, Dr Carr said: “The work started almost accidentally when about five years ago a student and I noticed that aphids became sick or died when confined on a virus-infected plant.  It’s an illustration of how research driven by curiosity can lead to findings that could have a positive impact in the real world - in this case in combating crop-damaging insects and the viruses they transmit.”


This research focuses on an example of what evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins has called the ‘extended phenotype’. For Dawkins, the word ‘phenotype’ (the traits of an organism) should not be limited solely to biological processes, but should also be used to describe all effects that a gene has on the organism or environment in which it exists, or other organisms nearby. In this case, it was discovered that a virus influences the infected host, the Arabidopsis plant, and forces the host to change in a way that is beneficial to the parasite.


The study was published in the journal PLOS ONE.


On the Net: