FIGURE 1.

The mutualistic interaction between Aphis gossypii and ants on cotton. The cotton aphid, A. gossypii Glover, is an important global pest that sucks sap and transmits viral diseases to host plants, causing serious economic losses in agriculture. Due to the difference in the life cycle and other factors, such as the mutualistic interaction between cotton aphids and ants, the synergy between symbiotic bacteria and aphids is quite different within aphid species or different in populations of same species. In this study, seven bacterial abundances in 1553 A. gossypii were estimated using quantitative PCR, providing novel information about bacterial community related to biotypes, host plants, prevalence time, and geography