scholarly journals Standardization of a Continuous Assay for Glycosidases and Its Use for Screening Insect Gut Samples at Individual and Populational Levels

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerson S. Profeta ◽  
Jessica A. S. Pereira ◽  
Samara G. Costa ◽  
Patricia Azambuja ◽  
Eloi S. Garcia ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Author(s):  
H.M. Mazzone ◽  
W.F. Engler ◽  
G. Wray ◽  
A. Szirmae ◽  
J. Conroy ◽  
...  

Viral inclusion bodies isolated from infected pest insects are being evaluated by the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture as biological insecticides against their hosts. Our research on these inclusion bodies constitutes part of an effort to support their approval by the Environmental Protection Agency as insect control agents. The inclusion bodies in this study are polyhedral in shape and contain rod-shaped viral particles. When ingested by pest insects, the inclusion bodies are broken down in the insect gut and release the viral particles which infect and multiply in the nuclei of host cells. These viruses are termed nucleopolyhedrosis viruses (NPV) and are representatives of the baculoviruses (Wildy, P. 1971 IN J.L. Melnick, ed., Monographs in Virology, vol. 5, S.Karger, New York).


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Judith Mogouong ◽  
Philippe Constant ◽  
Pierre Legendre ◽  
Claude Guertin

AbstractThe microbiome composition of living organisms is closely linked to essential functions determining the fitness of the host for thriving and adapting to a particular ecosystem. Although multiple factors, including the developmental stage, the diet, and host-microbe coevolution have been reported to drive compositional changes in the microbiome structures, very few attempts have been made to disentangle their various contributions in a global approach. Here, we focus on the emerald ash borer (EAB), an herbivorous pest and a real threat to North American ash tree species, to explore the responses of the adult EAB gut microbiome to ash leaf properties, and to identify potential predictors of EAB microbial variations. The relative contributions of specific host plant properties, namely bacterial and fungal communities on leaves, phytochemical composition, and the geographical coordinates of the sampling sites, to the EAB gut microbial community was examined by canonical analyses. The composition of the phyllosphere microbiome appeared to be a strong predictor of the microbial community structure in EAB guts, explaining 53 and 48% of the variation in fungi and bacteria, respectively. This study suggests a potential covariation of the microorganisms associated with food sources and the insect gut microbiome.


2017 ◽  
Vol 83 (23) ◽  
Author(s):  
Vincent G. Martinson ◽  
Javier Carpinteyro-Ponce ◽  
Nancy A. Moran ◽  
Therese A. Markow

ABSTRACT Almost all animals possess gut microbial communities, but the nature of these communities varies immensely. For example, in social bees and mammals, the composition is relatively constant within species and is dominated by specialist bacteria that do not live elsewhere; in laboratory studies and field surveys of Drosophila melanogaster, however, gut communities consist of bacteria that are ingested with food and that vary widely among individuals and localities. We addressed whether an ecological specialist in its natural habitat has a microbiota dominated by gut specialists or by environmental bacteria. Drosophila nigrospiracula is a species that is endemic to the Sonoran Desert and is restricted to decaying tissues of two giant columnar cacti, Pachycereus pringlei (cardón cactus) and Carnegiea gigantea (saguaro cactus). We found that the D. nigrospiracula microbiota differs strikingly from that of the cactus tissue on which the flies feed. The most abundant bacteria in the flies are rare or completely absent in the cactus tissue and are consistently abundant in flies from different cacti and localities. Several of these fly-associated bacterial groups, such as the bacterial order Orbales and the genera Serpens and Dysgonomonas, have been identified in prior surveys of insects from the orders Hymenoptera, Coleoptera, Lepidoptera, and Diptera, including several Drosophila species. Although the functions of these bacterial groups are mostly unexplored, Orbales species studied in bees are known to break down plant polysaccharides and use the resulting sugars. Thus, these bacterial groups appear to be specialized to the insect gut environment, where they may colonize through direct host-to-host transmission in natural settings. IMPORTANCE Flies in the genus Drosophila have become laboratory models for microbiota research, yet the bacteria commonly used in these experiments are rarely found in wild-caught flies and instead represent bacteria also present in the food. This study shows that an ecologically specialized Drosophila species possesses a distinctive microbiome, composed of bacterial types absent from the flies' natural food but widespread in other wild-caught insects. This study highlights the importance of fieldwork-informed microbiota research.


1976 ◽  
Vol 71 (1) ◽  
pp. 209-213 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alfred Arnold ◽  
H.Uwe Wolf ◽  
Bernd P. Ackermann ◽  
Hermann Bader

Biofuels ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 2 (5) ◽  
pp. 529-544 ◽  
Author(s):  
Weibing Shi ◽  
Ugur Uzuner ◽  
Lingxia Huang ◽  
Palmy R Jesudhasan ◽  
Suresh D Pillai ◽  
...  

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yanxue Yu ◽  
Qi Wang ◽  
Ping Zhou ◽  
Na Lv ◽  
Wei Li ◽  
...  

AbstractQuarantine insects are economically important pests that frequently invade new habitats. A rapid and accurate monitoring method to trace the geographical source of invaders is therefore needed for prevention, detection, and eradication. Current methods based on insect genetics are often too slow. We developed a novel tracing method based on insect gut microbiota. The source location of microbiota of insects can be used to rapidly determine the insects’ geographic origin. We analyzed 179 gut microbiota samples belonging to 591 individuals of 22 quarantine insect species collected from 36 regions in China and abroad. The gut microbiotas of these insects mainly included Actinobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Cyanobacteria, Firmicutes, Proteobacteria, and Tenericutes. The diversity of the insect gut microbiota was closely related to geographic and environmental factors. Different insect species could be distinguished at the phylum level of microbiota. Populations of individual insect species from different regions could be distinguished at the genus level of microbiota. A method for determining the geographical origin of invasive insect species was tentatively established, but its practical applicability requires further study.


2007 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 131-139 ◽  
Author(s):  
Doo-Sang Park ◽  
Hyun-Woo Oh ◽  
Kyung-Sook Bae ◽  
Hyang-Mi Kim ◽  
Sun-Yeon Heo ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Meret Huber ◽  
Thomas Roder ◽  
Sandra Irmisch ◽  
Alexander Riedel ◽  
Saskia Gablenz ◽  
...  

Gut enzymes can metabolize plant defense metabolites and thereby affect the growth and fitness of insect herbivores. Whether these enzymes also influence herbivore behavior and feeding preference is largely unknown. We studied the metabolization of taraxinic acid β-D-glucopyranosyl ester (TA-G), a sesquiterpene lactone of the common dandelion (Taraxacum officinale) that deters its major root herbivore, the common cockchafer larva (Melolontha melolontha). We demonstrate that TA-G is rapidly deglycosylated and conjugated to glutathione in the insect gut. A broad-spectrum M. melolontha β-glucosidase, Mm_bGlc17, is sufficient and necessary for TA-G deglycosylation. Using plants and insect RNA interference, we show that Mm_bGlc17 reduces TA-G toxicity. Furthermore, Mm_bGlc17 is required for the preference of M. melolontha larvae for TA-G deficient plants. Thus, herbivore metabolism modulates both the toxicity and deterrence of a plant defense metabolite. Our work illustrates the multifacteted roles of insect digestive enzymes as mediators of plant-herbivore interactions.


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