Salivary α-Amylase of Stem Borer Hosts Determines Host Recognition and Acceptance for Oviposition by Cotesia spp. (Hymenoptera, Braconidae)

Résumé

Foraging insect parasitoids use specific chemical cues to discriminate between host and non-host species. Several compounds have been identified in ‘host location and acceptance’. However, there is nothing known about the molecular variations in these compounds that account for host-range differences between parasitoid species. In a previous study, it was shown that during the host-finding process, the contact between the braconid Cotesia flavipes and its host is crucial, and that α-amylase of oral secretions from the host plays a key role for host acceptance and oviposition by the parasitoid. The present work investigated whether the variations in this enzyme could explain specific host recognition in different host-parasitoid associations. Different species and populations of the C. flavipes complex specialized on graminaceous lepidopteran stemborers were used. Electrophoresis of α-amylase revealed different isoforms that mediate oviposition acceptance and preference of the parasitoid for a specific host. This discovery opens new avenue to investigate evolutionary processes at play in chemically-mediated host specialization in the species-rich Cotesia genus.

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