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Contemplating the beauty of the poppies in the orchard of the Pedralbes monastery in Barcelona, I was surprised to see this small green aphid inside one of these flowers.
I have portrayed it for this report in La Vanguardia Readers' Photos in which we are going to discover the genetic engineering of aphids. We can ask ourselves if an insect like this can modify the genetic code of a plant for its own benefit and the answer is yes.
In a study published in the journal Current Biology, titled A novel family of secreted insect proteins linked to plant gall development, several scientists identify examples of insects whose genes directly guide the development of galls.
And what are guts? Also known as cecidia, these are abnormal structures in parts of plant tissues or organs that develop due to the specific reaction to the presence or activity of an inducing organism.
They are tumor-like and are developed by plants induced by a wide variety of insects, fungi, nematodes or viruses. It is, in fact, a defense mechanism in which the plant responds with abnormal growth of its tissues to cover the damaged, infected or parasitized area by another organism, such as an aphid.
They can acquire very diverse shapes and sizes, from amorphous specimens to spines, cones and even flowers that arise in reaction to the action of insects. These galls are basically induced by some species of aphids, mites or wasps.
