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Background  Bacteria of the genus  Asaia  have been recently recognized as secondary symbionts of different sugar-feeding insects, including the leafhopper  Scaphoideus titanus , vector of Flavescence dorée phytoplasmas.  Asaia  has been shown to be localized in  S. titanus  gut, salivary glands and gonoducts and to be maternally transmitted to the progeny by an egg smearing mechanism. It is currently not known whether  Asaia  in  S. titanus  is transmitted by additional routes. We performed a study to evaluate if  Asaia  infection is capable of horizontal transmission  via  co-feeding and venereal routes.    Results  A Gfp-tagged strain of  Asaia  was provided to  S. titanus  individuals to trace the transmission pathways of the symbiotic bacterium. Co-feeding trials showed a regular transfer of bacterial cells from donors to recipients, with a peak of frequency after 72 hours of exposure, and with concentrations of the administrated strain growing over time. Venereal transmission experiments were first carried out using infected males paired with uninfected females. In this case, female individuals acquired Gfp-labelled  Asaia , with highest infection rates 72-96 hours after mating and with increasing abundance of the tagged symbiont over time. When crosses between infected females and uninfected males were conducted, the occurrence of “female to male” transmission was observed, even though the transfer occurred unevenly.    Conclusions  The data presented demonstrate that the acetic acid bacterial symbiont  Asaia  is horizontally transmitted among  S .  titanus  individuals both by co-feeding and venereal transmission, providing one of the few direct demonstrations of such a symbiotic transfer in Hemiptera. This study contributes to the understanding of the bacterial ecology in the insect host, and indicates that  Asaia  evolved multiple pathways for the colonization of  S .  titanus  body.

Horizontal transmission of the symbiotic bacterium Asaia sp. in the leafhopper Scaphoideus titanus Ball (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae)