Sentences with word «mealybug»

Many sap - eating insects rely on helpful bacteria, or symbionts, to make amino acids, but none of them has the citrus mealybug's nested microbes.

Mealybugs in Thailand and white flies in Africa are significant threats, with the latter serving as a vector for plant viruses.

«An Interdependent Metabolic Patchwork in the Nested Symbiosis of Mealybugs.»

«Sending in the wasps is a proven way to kill the cassava mealybugs quickly and effectively.

More like mealybug assassins.

With just 121 protein - coding genes, the diminutive Tremblaya princeps, a symbiotic bacterium that lives inside specialized cells of the sap - eating mealybug, has the smallest known genome of any cellular organism on the planet.

They soon noticed something strange: Individually, neither the larger bacterium, Tremblaya princeps, nor its internal partner, Moranella endobia, had the biochemical machinery needed to convert sap into the amino acids mealybugs need.

Crack open the cells of a plant - infesting pest called the citrus mealybug and you will find small bacteria called Tremblaya princeps.

The cassava mealybug (Phenacoccus manihoti) thrives on the plant's starchy root — a staple of many diets worldwide.

-- It could be mealybugs, an insect.

At some point, the Tremblaya genome shrank so much that the bacterium's amino acid production machinery gummed up, forcing the mealybug to recruit a second partner to pick up the slack.

The mealybug uses its two partners to supplement its monotonous diet of plant sap.

Unfortunately, the mealybug is equally capable of traveling via a human vector — and it is now devastating the cassava (aka manioc or yucca) crop on some 200,000 hectares in Thailand, where some 60 percent of global exports (worth $ 1.5 billion) are grown, according to the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), a Colombia - based research nonprofit focused on reducing hunger and poverty via sustainable agriculture.

The mealybug genome harbors 22 genes from bacteria with ancestors unrelated to Tremblaya and Moranella, but these genes, which code for proteins involved in the production of essential nutrients and the synthesis of the cellular wall enclosing the bacteria, «fit with things missing in the symbionts,» said McCutcheon.

The mealybug genome appears to include genes from other varieties of bacteria distinct from Tremblaya and Moranella, and the two endosymbiont bacteria may use the protein products of these genes to manufacture nutrients and to make their membranes.

Together the three organisms form a complex, co-dependent web; the nested bacteria complement each other and their insect host, creating a genetic patchwork of enzymes needed to produce amino acids lacking in the mealybugs» sap diet.

Tremblaya helps to supply the mealybug with essential amino acids and likely receives nutrients and other life - sustaining molecules in return.

The citrus mealybug (main image) needs its nested bacterial buddies (inset, bigger blue blobs = Tremblaya red smaller ones = Moranella) to make the most of its meals.

Mealybugs are the Russian nesting dolls of the animal world.

Microbiologist John McCutcheon of the University of Montana, Missoula, was intrigued by the citrus mealybug's (Planococcus citri's) unique setup.

Now scientists have figured out how both microbes pitch in to keep the mealybugs well fed — a finding that could offer a glimpse at how our own mitochondria evolved.

Mealybugs and their myrmecoid herders.

If it goes around on six legs, it doesn't get much dowdier than the mealybug 1.

At the same time, exotic and foreign types — such as the orangey Asian ladybug, initially introduced to control pests such as aphids and mealybugs — are on the upswing.

Also effective on spidermites, thrips, mealybugs, and whiteflies

Tags: aphids, home made, insecticides, ladybirds, ladybugs, mealybugs, organic, pesticide, repellants, slugs, spidemites, sustainable, thrips, whitefly

Most Coccinellids are beneficial to gardens, as they feed on aphids, scale insects, mealybugs, and mites throughout the winter.