About Acyrthosiphon pisum

(Acyrthosiphon pisum*)*, commonly known as the pea aphid, is a sap-sucking insect in the family Aphididae. It feeds on several species of legumes worldwide, including forage crops, such as pea, clover, alfalfa, and broad bean, and ranks among the aphid species of major agronomical importance. The pea aphid is a model organism for biological study whose genome has been sequenced and annotated.

Aphids are common agricultural pests that feed on sap from the phloem vessels of a wide range of host plants. The pea aphid Acyrthosiphon pisum has co-evolved with an obligate bacterial symbiont (Buchnera aphidicola), which provides essential amino acids that are rare in phloem and would otherwise be missing from the aphids' diet. The co-evolution of the aphid and Buchnera has led to extensive gene loss from the genome, including immunity related pathways, purine salvage and the urea cycle. At the same time over 2000 gene families are duplicated, including miRNA synthesis and sugar transport [1,2].

Picture credit: Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 via Wikimedia Commons (Image source) Taxonomy ID 7029

(Text from Wikipedia.)

More information General information about this species can be found in Wikipedia

Taxonomy ID 7029

Data source Integrative Biology, University of Texas at Austin

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