Ambient air pollution induced changes in amino acid pattern of phloem sap in host plants-relevance to aphid infestation.
In pollution exclusion experiments on the verge of a widely-used motorway, it has been shown that roadway emissions increase the abundance of the aphid Aphis fabae Scop. on two different host plants, Viburnum opulus L. and Phaseolus vulgaris L. Analysis of phloem sap of excised leaves revealed on increase in almost all of the detected amino acids due to ambient air pollution. To investigate the significance of these changes to aphid development, the patterns analyzed were translated into artificial diets, representing the amino acid composition either of filtered air or ambient air host plants. On 'ambient air' diets, the larvae were significantly larger at birth compared to the progeny on 'filtered air' diets. Also the mean relative growth rates (MRGR) of larvae reared on 'ambient air' diets were significantly increased. At the same time, a conspicuous shorter development time of the larvae could be observed on 'ambient air' diets.