Abstract
Bark beetles from Dendroctonus genus promote ecological succession and nutrient cycling in coniferous forests. However, they can trigger outbreaks leading to important economic losses in the forest industry. Conifers have evolved resistance mechanisms that can be toxic to insects but at the same time, bark beetles are capable of overcoming tree barriers and colonize these habitats. In this sense, symbiont yeasts present in the gut of bark beetles have been suggested to play a role in the detoxification process of tree defensive chemicals. In the present study, genes related to this process were identified and their response to a terpene highly toxic to bark beetles and their symbionts was analyzed in the Cyberlindnera americana yeast. The genome and transcriptome of C. americana (ChDrAdgY46) isolated from the gut of Dendroctonus rhizophagus were presented. Genome analysis identified 5752 protein-coding genes and diverse gene families associated with the detoxification process. The most abundant belonged to the Aldo-Keto Reductase Superfamily, ATP-binding cassette Superfamily, and the Major Facilitator Superfamily transporters. The transcriptome analysis of non-α-pinene stimulated and α-pinene stimulated yeasts showed a significant expression of genes belonging to these families. The activities demonstrated by the genes identified as Aryl-alcohol dehydrogenase and ABC transporter under (+)-α-pinene suggest that they are responsible, that C. americana is a dominant symbiont that resists high amounts of monoterpenes inside the gut of bark beetles.
Highlights
Bark beetles from Dendroctonus genus (Curculionidae: Scolytinae) are natural agents of pines forests (Family: Pinaceae), which participate in forest regeneration and matter recycling by colonizing and killing old and weakened trees (Raffa et al, 2015)
Given that this yeast is a common symbiont of Dendroctonus species (Rivera et al, 2009; Davis, 2015), which have capacities to tolerate and degrade high concentrations of trees compounds and that the use of “omics” technologies is fundamental to document and have an overview of the genes and proteins involved in the process, the present study aims to identify the diversity of genes involved in the detoxification process in C. americana and to evaluate their expression after being stimulated with α-pinene, a terpene highly toxic to bark beetles and their symbionts by means of genomics and transcriptomics approaches
Bark beetles have faced the toxic compounds of their host plants through different enzymes and molecular mechanisms (Robert et al, 2013; Dai et al, 2016, 2018; Chiu et al, 2019) of their own or from different symbiont microbes such as yeast, fungi, and bacteria
Summary
Bark beetles from Dendroctonus genus (Curculionidae: Scolytinae) are natural agents of pines forests (Family: Pinaceae), which participate in forest regeneration and matter recycling by colonizing and killing old and weakened trees (Raffa et al, 2015). They are regarded as disturbance agents, because some of these species undergo broadscale outbreak killing thousands of trees, thereby changing the ecological landscape and affecting the natural capital of forests (Raffa et al, 2008). Not less important strategy, is the development of complex interactions with different microorganisms (e.g., fungi, yeasts, and bacteria), from which insects obtain direct benefits. The microbes increase the success of colonization of trees, cooperating in the killing of them (Six and Wingfield, 2011; Boone et al, 2013), regulate immune response of insects (Shi and Sun, 2010), as well as the interactions between them and other microorganisms (Scott et al, 2008; Adams et al, 2009; Zhou et al, 2016)
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