BioProject

Soybean aphids are phloem-feeding pests that can cause significant yield losses in soybean plants. More...

Soybean aphids are phloem-feeding pests that can cause significant yield losses in soybean plants. Soybean aphids thrive on susceptible soybean lines but not on resistant lines. Aphids do not normally kill their host and colonize plants for long periods of time, up to several months in soybean. However, our knowledge of plant responses to long-term aphid colonization is very limited. We used microarrays to characterize the soybean plant's transcriptional response against aphids in two related cultivars, a susceptible line and a resistant line with the Rag1 aphid-resistance gene. We measured transcript levels in leaves after 21 days of aphid infestation. Overall design: This was a full-factorial experiment with two factors: soybean variety (susceptible SD01-76R,resistant LD05-16060), and aphid treatment (control, aphids). There were three replicates per treatment, for a total of 12 samples. The experiment was carried out in a growth chamber. At the V3 growth stage, thirty aphids were added to the third trifoliate leaves of the aphid-treated plants. Each plant was covered with a net to prevent aphid movement among different plants. The aphids were removed prior to sampling. Less...