Symbiosis and wood-feeding in the European woodwasp, Sirex noctilio.

Monday, November 11, 2013: 9:12 AM
Meeting Room 17 A (Austin Convention Center)
Brian M Thompson , Department of Entomology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD
Garret Suen , Department of Bacteriology, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI
Jake Bodart , Department of Entomology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD
Bo Liu , Center for Bioinformatics and Computational Biology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD
Cameron Currie , Bacteriology, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI
Mihai Pop , Computer Science Department, University of Maryland, College Park, MD
Daniel S. Gruner , Department of Entomology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD
Woodwasps are a basal group of the Hymenoptera that feed on the nitrogen poor xylem of woody plants. In this study, we explored biological nitrogen limitation and supplementation for the wood-feeding European woodwasp, Sirex noctilio, using isotopic and genomic analysis. We tested nitrogen pathways using stable isotope analysis and experimentally tested nitrogen fixation using isotopically labeled 15N gas. We further characterized nitrogen fixation pathways using genomic approaches for the conserved portion of the nitrogenase gene. Nitrogen in wood alone was insufficient to support larval development. Nitrogen in Sirex larvae was predominantly derived from an association with a nitrogen fixing endosymbiont. This research suggests association with nitrogen fixing bacteria is a key factor in wood-feeding for Sirex, but may also represent a widespread, yet little known, associative innovation in in woodwasps. Association with nitrogen fixing endosymbiont are frequently associated with feeding on nitrogen poor resources, but have never been observed in the basal Hymenoptera.
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