Taxonomy, Diet, and Developmental Stage Contribute to the Structuring of Gut-Associated Bacterial Communities in Tephritid Pest Species.

Antonios A Augustinos,George Tsiamis,Carlos Cáceres,Adly M M Abd-Alla,Kostas Bourtzis

doi:10.3389/fmicb.2019.02004

Antonios A Augustinos, George Tsiamis + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2019.02004

Copy DOI

Abstract

Insect-symbiont interactions are receiving much attention in the last years. Symbiotic communities have been found to influence a variety of parameters regarding their host physiology and fitness. Gut symbiotic communities can be dynamic, changing through time and developmental stage. Whether these changes represent real differential needs and preferential relationships has not been addressed yet. In this study, we characterized the structure of symbiotic communities of five laboratory populations that represent five Tephritidae species that are targets for pest control management through the sterile insect technique (SIT), namely Bactrocera oleae, Anastrepha grandis, Anastrepha ludens, and two morphotypes of Anastrepha fraterculus (sp.1 and the Andean lineage). These populations are under artificial or semi artificial rearing conditions and their characterization was performed for different developmental stages and age. Our results demonstrate the presence of a symbiotic community comprising mainly from different Enterobacteriaceae genera. These communities are dynamic across developmental stages, although not highly variable, and appear to have a species-specific profile. Additional factors may contribute to the observed structuring, including diet, rearing practices, and the degree of domestication. Comparison of these results with those derived from natural populations could shed light to changes occurring in the symbiotic level during domestication of Tephritidae populations. Further studies will elucidate whether the changes are associated with modification of the behavior in laboratory strains and assess their effects in the quality of the mass rearing insects. This could be beneficial for improving environmentally friendly, species-specific, pest control methods, such as the SIT.

Highlights

Tephritidae is a family of Diptera harboring more than 500 genera and 4600 species (Norrbom, 2004; Virgilio et al, 2009, 2014)
A total of 2,254,978 raw reads were obtained from the 454 processing; 1,544,398 reads passed the filters applied through QIIME for non-eukaryotic sequences, with an average of 14,890
Several studies from another research team (Behar et al, 2005, 2008; BenYosef et al, 2008; Ben Ami et al, 2010; Gavriel et al, 2011; Aharon et al, 2012) provided interesting findings that can be summarized as: (a) Enterobacteriaceae was shown to be the dominant community in the medfly gut, with relatively few genera being present in varying relative abundance (RA), (b) Klebsiella is believed to be a key genus, important for the fitness of medfly and is mainly found in the wild populations of the species, (c) gut symbiotic community is dynamic, depending mainly on the developmental stage and age of adults and, (d) wild populations seem to harbor more polymorphic symbiotic communities than long adapted laboratory strains, no direct comparison has been performed

Summary

Introduction

Tephritidae is a family of Diptera harboring more than 500 genera and 4600 species (Norrbom, 2004; Virgilio et al, 2009, 2014). Anastrepha, Bactrocera, Ceratitis, Dacus, Rhagoletis, and Zeugodacus include frugivorous species, with around 100 of them being agricultural pests of economic importance (White and Elson-Harris, 1992; Norrbom, 2004; Virgilio et al, 2009, 2014). Among the methods used against insect pests, environmentally friendly control methods have received attention in the last decades, enhanced by the documented environmental and health concerns associated with the extensive use of pesticides. In this respect, area-wide integrated pest management (AW-IPM) utilizes different approaches that synergistically can drastically suppress or locally eliminate the pest population. SIT is based on the release of sterile insects, preferentially only males, that can mate with the female flies of the natural population, leading to infertile crosses and, reduction in population size (Dyck et al, 2005)

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion