Abstract
BackgroundSymbiotic bacteria contribute to a multitude of important biological functions such as nutrition and reproduction and affect multiple physiological factors like fitness and longevity in their insect hosts. The melon fly, Zeugodacus cucurbitae (Coquillett), is an important agricultural pest that affects a variety of cultivated plants belonging mostly to the Cucurbitaceae family. It is considered invasive and widespread in many parts of the world. Several approaches are currently being considered for the management of its populations including the environmentally friendly and effective sterile insect technique (SIT), as a component of an integrated pest management (IPM) strategy. In the present study, we examined the effect of diet and radiation on the bacterial symbiome of Z. cucurbitae flies with the use of Next Generation Sequencing technologies.ResultsMelon flies were reared on two diets at the larval stage, an artificial bran-based diet and on sweet gourd, which affected significantly the development of the bacterial profiles. Significant differentiation was also observed based on gender. The effect of radiation was mostly diet dependent, with irradiated melon flies reared on the bran diet exhibiting a significant reduction in species diversity and richness compared to their non-irradiated controls. Changes in the bacterial symbiome of the irradiated melon flies included a drastic reduction in the number of sequences affiliated with members of Citrobacter, Raoultella, and Enterobacteriaceae. At the same time, an increase was observed for members of Enterobacter, Providencia and Morganella. Interestingly, the irradiated male melon flies reared on sweet gourd showed a clear differentiation compared to their non-irradiated controls, namely a significant reduction in species richness and minor differences in the relative abundance for members of Enterobacter and Providencia.ConclusionsThe two diets in conjunction with the irradiation affected significantly the formation of the bacterial symbiome. Melon flies reared on the bran-based artificial diet displayed significant changes in the bacterial symbiome upon irradiation, in all aspects, including species richness, diversity and composition. When reared on sweet gourd, significant changes occurred to male samples due to radiation, only in terms of species richness.
Highlights
Symbiotic bacteria contribute to a multitude of important biological functions such as nutrition and reproduction and affect multiple physiological factors like fitness and longevity in their insect hosts
Bacterial community composition and diversity of Z. cucurbitae laboratory populations, kept on an artificial larval diet based on wheat bran and on a natural host and treated with irradiation at a 50 Gy dose, were investigated by 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing
Non-irradiated samples reared on the artificial bran-based diet (NIR_BR) exhibited similar species diversity and richness compared to non-irradiated controls reared on sweet gourd (NIR_SG) (t-test; df: 18; p < 1; Fig. 1)
Summary
Symbiotic bacteria contribute to a multitude of important biological functions such as nutrition and reproduction and affect multiple physiological factors like fitness and longevity in their insect hosts. The melon fly, Zeugodacus cucurbitae (Coquillett), is an important agricultural pest that affects a variety of cultivated plants belonging mostly to the Cucurbitaceae family. It is considered invasive and widespread in many parts of the world. The melon fly is considered an important agricultural pest affecting a variety of cultivated fruit and vegetable plants. It is mainly polyphagous, but oligophagous populations have been found in Thailand, Malaysia and France (Reunion Island, Indian Ocean) [25,26,27,28]. Its hosts were initially estimated at 81 species [23] but their number was later reduced to 45 well-recorded species that belong to 9 different families, most of them members of the Cucurbitaceae family [20]
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