The mechanism for microsporidian parasite suppression of the hindgut bacteria of the migratory locust Locusta migratoria manilensis.

Shu-Qian Tan,Wang-Peng Shi,Kai-Qi Zhang,Yang Ge,Hong-Xing Chen,Rong Ji

doi:10.1038/srep17365

Shu-Qian Tan, Wang-Peng Shi + Show 4 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1038/srep17365

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Abstract

Locusts aggregate into bands of nymphs and swarms of adults that can pose a major threat to crop. Previous studies have shown that infection by the microsporidian parasite Paranosema locustae prevents locust aggregation behavior and we show that gut bacteria, which produce components of locust aggregation pheromones, are substantially reduced in locusts infected with P. locustae. We found that P. locustae could reduce the diversity, abundance and community composition of Locusta migratoria’s gut bacteria. The parasite infection was also shown to interrupt the peroxidase activity of locust hindgut. Genome-wide expression analysis showed that the parasite infection suppressed peroxidase mRNA relative expression of locust hindgut, but had no effects on attacin expression and superoxide dismutase at 16 d post-inoculation with 20,000 P. locustae spores. Our findings reveal the mechanisms by which P. locustae impairs bacterial diversity and community structure of Locusta migratoria’s gut bacteria.

Highlights

Microbiota of locusts after infection with the introduced microsporidian P. locustae
The number of effective bacterial sequences obtained for infected locust (IL) samples were less than those of control locusts (CL), but the average length was not significantly different (Table 1)
The Rarefaction curve showed that the numbers of bacterial Operational Taxonomic Units (OTUs) approached a certain value, leveling off at a high sampling size, which meant that the number of bacterial sequences obtained were reasonable and the bacterial diversity of the samples were accurate, The rank-abundance distribution curve showed that the bacterial abundance in the hindgut of infected locusts was lower than that for untreated control locusts (Fig. 1B)