Starvation Stress Causes Body Color Change and Pigment Degradation in Acyrthosiphon pisum.

ABSTRACT: The pea aphid, Acyrthosiphon pisum (Harris), shows body color shifting from red to pale under starvation in laboratory conditions. These body color changes reflect aphid's adaptation to environmental stress. To understand the color-shifting patterns, the underlying mechanism and its biological or ecological functions, we measured the process of A. pisum's body color shifting patterns using a digital imagery and analysis system; we conducted a series of biochemical experiments to determine the mechanism that causes color change and performed biochemical and molecular analyses of the energy reserves during the color shifting process. We found that the red morph of A. pisum could shift their body color to pale red, when starved; this change occurred rapidly at a certain stress threshold. Once

SUBMITTER: Wang XX 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6412094 | biostudies-literature | 2019

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature