Résumé
Aphids are among the most frequent and economically important vectors of plant viruses worldwide. The majority of aphid-vectored viruses are transmitted in a noncirculative manner and transported on the surface of the stylets while the insects move from plant to plant. The acrostyle is an organ located at the tip of maxillary stylets that we discovered more than 10 years ago in our quest to identify virus receptors. Its surface exposes cuticular proteins at the cuticle−fluid interface, 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 various approaches to thoroughly characterize the acrostyle, its composition, its biological properties and more recently its biogenesis. Here, we will present another facet of its biological properties. Beyond the identification of non-circulative virus receptors, we investigated the function of the acrostyle in the aphid feeding process and its capacity to bind other molecules. Using yeast-two-hybrid system, in vitro interaction assays on dissected stylets and RNA interference, we demonstrated that the salivary effector Mp10 interacts with Stylin-03 and binds the acrostyle of Myzus persicae and Acyrthosiphon pisum aphid species. We also showed that silencing stylins resulted in alteration of the feeding behavior related to aphid salivation. Our data indicate that the acrostyle is a multifaceted cuticular organ able to operate a natural affinity chromatography process to bind viruses and effectors and support a role for the acrostyle in the early phases of plant-aphid interactions.