Résumé
The acrostyle is an organ at the tip of aphid maxillary stylets, which we discovered more than 10 years ago in our quest to identify non-circulative virus receptors. The acrostyle surface exposes cuticular proteins, the stylins, of which Stylin-01 was shown to play a key role in the transmission of Cauliflower mosaic virus. Since its discovery, we have been developing complementary approaches to thoroughly characterize the acrostyle, decipher its composition, biological properties and biogenesis. This information is essential for understanding plant-aphid-virus interactions and the molecular mechanisms of non-circulative transmission, and offers an avenue for future alternative control strategies to limit viral spread. Studying cuticle and cuticular proteins is an ongoing challenge. Some approaches, advances but also technical bottlenecks we encountered so far will be discussed.