Enhanced heat tolerance dataset of virus-infected aphids and host plant species 

The project is focused on the topic, 'enhanced heat tolerance of virus-infected aphids lead to niche expansion and reduced interspecific competition. The two aphid species studied are Rhopalosiphum padi and Rhopalosiphum maidis. The project had some of the following objectives: [1] Spatial distribution of two aphid species on the host plants [2] Upper thermal limits of two aphid species. [3] Effects of the viral infection on the host plant thermal profile. [4] Levels of expression of heat shock protein genes of virus-free and viruliferous aphids. [5] Locomotor capacity of aphids, effects of viruses on the locomotor capacity. [6] Effects of viral infection, temperature, and competition on the lifespan and fecundity of R. padi [7] Effects of viral infection, temperature, and competition on the lifespan and fecundity of R. maidis [8] Temperature of acrylic tubes used on aphid experiments. [9] Thermal lethal dose 50 of virus-free and viruliferous aphids [10] Thermal preference of virus-free and viruliferous aphids. This information can be very useful for ecologist working on insect population dynamics as well as physiologist and eco-physiologists doing meta-analyses of expression of heat shock protein genes induced by symbionts. 

We at TERN acknowledge the Traditional Owners and Custodians throughout Australia, New Zealand and all nations. We honour their profound connections to land, water, biodiversity and culture and pay our respects to their Elders past, present and emerging. 

Viral infection can alter the interactions of host and vectors with other species, but the broader ecological implications of such effects are little known. Here we show that an aphid-vectored plant virus (BYDV-PAV) increases both the temperature of infected plants and the heat tolerance of its vector (Rhopalosiphum padi), leading to an expansion of an 8 °C increase in R. padi thermal tolerance, which was associated with the up-regulation of several heat-shock protein genes. This enhanced thermal tolerance allowed the vector to occupy higher and warmer regions of infected host plants and thereby escape competition with a larger aphid (R. maidis). 

Upper thermal limits, locomotor capacity, thermal preference, infra red thermal photography, qrt-PCR, surveys: Thermography: We characterized the natural temperature profiles of wheat plants (5-week old) in a cultivated field at the Rock Springs Experimental Station in central Pennsylvania (USA). For twenty randomly selected plants, we measured the average temperatures of stems and apical flag leaves, using an IR thermal camera (T650SC; FLIR Inc., Wilsonville, OR, USA) with a 25 mm lens (15° field of view). Critical temperature maxima or upper thermal limit: we employed a protocol modified from that of Ribeiro et al. 53. Individual aphids (4-day old; aphids were grown on 20 different plants per infection treatment) were placed in a metal pelt adapted to a ceramic hotplate inside automated thermal chamber (dimensions of incubator's cabin: width 40.5 cm x 35 cm length x 40 cm height, Sable System, LV, USA) and exposed to increasing temperature at 0.1°C/minute until its locomotion stopped.