The microbial gut communities associated with various xylophagous beetles offer great potential for different biotechnologies and elaboration of novel pest management strategies. In this research, the intestinal bacterial and fungal communities of various cerambycid larvae, including Acmaeops septentrionis, Acanthocinus aedilis, Callidium coriaceum, Trichoferus campestris and Chlorophorus herbstii, were investigated. The intestinal microbial communities of these Cerambycidae species were mostly represented by members of the bacterial phyla Proteobacteria and Actinobacteria and the fungal phylum Ascomycota. However, the bacterial and fungal communities varied by beetle species and between individual organisms. Furthermore, bacterial communities’ metagenomes reconstruction indicated the genes that encode enzymes involved in the lignocellulose degradation (such as peroxidases, alpha-L-fucosidases, beta-xylosidases, beta-mannosidases, endoglucanases, beta-glucosidases and others) and nitrogen fixation (nitrogenases). Most of the predicted genes potentially related to lignocellulose degradation were enriched in the T. campestris, A. aedilis and A. septentrionis larval gut consortia, whereas predicted genes affiliated with the nitrogenase component proteins were enriched in the T. campestris, A. septentrionis and C. herbstii larval gut consortia. Several bacteria and fungi detected in the current work could be involved in the nutrition of beetle larvae.

Interpretation of how partnerships between fungi, bacteria, archaea, and insects are maintained through the life of the hosts is a big challenge within the framework of symbiosis research. The main goal of this work was to characterize the gut microbiota in larvae of several Coleoptera species using sequencing of the bacterial and archaeal 16S rRNA genes and fungal internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region. Thus, larvae with various food preferences, including Amphimallon solstitiale, Oryctes nasicornis, Cucujus cinnaberinus, Schizotus pectinicornis, Rhagium mordax, and Rhagium inquisitor, were thoroughly investigated in this work. We revealed an association of these beetle species mainly with four bacterial phyla, Proteobacteria, Firmicutes, Actinobacteria, and Bacteroidetes, as well as with three fungal phyla, Ascomycota, Zygomycota, and Basidiomycota, but microbial communities varied depending on the beetle host, individual organism, and surrounding environment. Moreover, archaea within the phyla Euryarchaeota and Crenarchaeota in the hindgut content of O. nasicornis and A. solstitiale were additionally detected. The identified microbial communities suggest their potential role in the exploitation of various resources, providing nutritional needs for the host organism. These microorganisms can also represent a valuable source of novel metabolic capacities for their application in different biotechnologies.

Brevibacterium spp. are aerobic, nonbranched, asporogenous, gram-positive, rod-shaped bacteria which may exhibit a rod-coccus cycle when cells get older and can be found in various environments. ​Several Brevibacterium species have industrial importance and are capable of biotransformation of various contaminants. Here we describe the draft genome sequence of Brevibacterium epidermidis EZ-K02 isolated from nitrocellulose-contaminated wastewater environments. The genome comprises 3,885,924 bp, with a G + C content of 64.2%. This whole genome shotgun project has been deposited at DDBJ/ENA/GenBank under the accession PDHL00000000.