Abstract
The bacterial communities in the gut of an insect have important ecological and functional effects on the insect. However, the community composition and diversity of the gut microbiota in insects that vector plant viruses are poorly understood. As an important insect vector, Psammotettix alienus transmits various viruses including wheat dwarf virus (WDV). Here, we used the combination of leafhopper and WDV as model to survey the influence of gut microbiota on virus transmission characteristic of insect vector and vice versa. We have characterized 22 phyla and 249 genera of all gut bacterial communities in the leafhopper populations collected from six geographic regions in China. Community composition and diversity varied across different geographic populations. However, WDV transmission efficiencies of these six field populations were all greater than 80% with no significant difference. Interestingly, the transmission efficiency of WDV by laboratory reared insects with decreased gut bacterial diversity was similar to that of field populations. Furthermore, we found that the composition of the leafhopper gut bacteria was dynamic and could reversibly respond to WDV acquisition. Higher bacterial diversity and abundance of gut microbiota in different leafhopper populations did not influence their WDV transmission efficiency, while the acquisition of WDV changes gut microbiota by a dynamic and reversible manner. This report provides insight into the complex relationship between the gut microbiota, insect vector and virus.
Highlights
Almost all insects harbor gut microbial communities that play important functions for their hosts (Dillon and Dillon, 2004)
We focused on the gut bacterial community changes during wheat dwarf virus (WDV) acquisition (Supplementary Figure S1)
To study the composition and diversity of the gut bacterial communities in the leafhopper field population, three DNA pools of leafhoppers were extracted from each of the six geographic locations (Table 1), and subjected to Illumina sequencing of 16S rDNA
Summary
Almost all insects harbor gut microbial communities that play important functions for their hosts (Dillon and Dillon, 2004). Such microbial partners can provide nutrition, contribute to host reproduction and survival (Broderick et al, 2006; Sharon et al, 2010), mediate detoxification of insect diets (Genta et al, 2006; Cejanavarro et al, 2015), or confer resistance. The composition and diversity of insect gut microbes are influenced by the external factors, such as climate change (Sheik et al, 2011), soil attributes (da C Jesus et al, 2009; Young et al, 2018), pathogens and ingested food (Knief et al, 2010; Ben Guerrero et al, 2016)
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