Most studies of bacterial motility have examined small-scale (micrometer–centimeter) cell dispersal in monocultures. However, bacteria live in multispecies communities, where interactions with other microbes may inhibit or facilitate dispersal. Here, we demonstrate that motile bacteria in cheese rind microbiomes use physical networks created by filamentous fungi for dispersal, and that these interactions can shape microbial community structure. Serratia proteamaculans and other motile cheese rind bacteria disperse on fungal networks by swimming in the liquid layers formed on fungal hyphae. RNA-sequencing, transposon mutagenesis, and comparative genomics identify potential genetic mechanisms, including flagella-mediated motility, that control bacterial dispersal on hyphae. By manipulating fungal networks in experimental communities, we demonstrate that fungal-mediated bacterial dispersal can shift cheese rind microbiome composition by promoting the growth of motile over non-motile community members. Our single-cell to whole-community systems approach highlights the interactive dynamics of bacterial motility in multispecies microbiomes.
bBuchnera aphidicola is an obligate endosymbiont that provides aphids with several essential nutrients. Though much is known about aphid-Buchnera interactions, the effect of the host plant on Buchnera population size remains unclear. Here we used quantitative PCR (qPCR) techniques to explore the effects of the host plant on Buchnera densities in the cotton-melon aphid, Aphis gossypii. Buchnera titers were significantly higher in populations that had been reared on cucumber for over 10 years than in populations maintained on cotton for a similar length of time. Aphids collected in the wild from hibiscus and zucchini harbored more Buchnera symbionts than those collected from cucumber and cotton. The effect of aphid genotype on the population size of Buchnera depended on the host plant upon which they fed. When aphids from populations maintained on cucumber or cotton were transferred to novel host plants, host survival and Buchnera population size fluctuated markedly for the first two generations before becoming relatively stable in the third and later generations. Host plant extracts from cucumber, pumpkin, zucchini, and cowpea added to artificial diets led to a significant increase in Buchnera titers in the aphids from the population reared on cotton, while plant extracts from cotton and zucchini led to a decrease in Buchnera titers in the aphids reared on cucumber. Gossypol, a secondary metabolite from cotton, suppressed Buchnera populations in populations from both cotton and cucumber, while cucurbitacin from cucurbit plants led to higher densities. Together, the results suggest that host plants influence Buchnera population processes and that this may provide phenotypic plasticity in host plant use for clonal aphids.A phids harbor two types of bacterial endosymbionts: the obligate symbiont Buchnera aphidicola, which occurs in almost all aphids, and facultative bacteria belonging to a variety of taxa that are not essential for aphid survival and typically are found in some but not all individuals of a population (1-3). The association between Buchnera and aphids was established 80 to 150 million years ago (4), and because transmission is strictly maternal, bacteria and host phylogenies are perfectly congruent. Buchnera is essential for the aphid, and if the symbiont is experimentally removed, the host grows very slowly and cannot reproduce (5-7). Buchnera synthesizes essential amino acids and other substances that are absent in the aphid's phloem diet (1,(8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13) and is active in purine metabolism (14, 15). The symbiont's activities can be disrupted by heat shock, and it has been shown that variation in the promoter of a Buchnera heat shock gene impacts aphid thermal tolerance (16,17). The genome of Buchnera is much smaller than those of its free-living relatives (18, 19) and in many ways it now resembles an organelle, highly integrated within the physiology of its host.Densities of Buchnera (as measured by quantitative PCR [qPCR] relative to the host) are affected by host age and genotype and by ...
Supplemental nutrients of adult moths maximize moth fitness and contribute to the pollination of many plants. Previous reports have revealed that sugar feeding promotes to sex pheromone biosynthesis by increasing the haemolymph trehalose concentration in mating moths. Here, Mythimna separata adults were employed as a model to investigate the effect of sugar feeding on sex pheromone biosynthesis. Results showed that in virgin females, sugar feeding markedly increased the concentrations of trehalose, pyruvic acid, and acyl-CoA in pheromone glands (PGs), which in turn led to an increase in sex pheromone titer, female ability to attract males and successfully mating frequency in sugar-fed females. Consistently, sugar-fed females laid more eggs than water-fed females. Furthermore, the refeeding of starved females also caused significantly increase in the concentrations of trehalose, pyruvic acid, and acyl-CoA in PGs, thus facilitating a significant increase in sex pheromone production. Most importantly, RNAi-mediated knockdown of trehalase (leading to PG starvation) resulted in an increase in trehalose content, and decrease in the concentrations of pyruvic acid, and acyl-CoA in PGs, which in turn led to a decrease of sex pheromone titer, female ability to attract males and successful mating efficacy. Altogether, results revealed a mechanism by which sugar feeding contributed to trehalose utilization in PGs, promoted to significantly increased sex pheromone precursor by increasing the concentrations of pyruvic acid and acyl-CoA, and facilitated to sex pheromone biosynthesis and successful mating.
The function of odorant-binding proteins (OBPs) in insect chemodetection has been extensively studied. However, the role of OBPs in the defense of insects against exogenous toxic substances remains elusive. The red flour beetle, Tribolium castaneum , a major pest of stored grains, causes serious economic losses for the agricultural grain and food processing industries. Here, biochemical analysis showed that essential oil (EO) from Artemisia vulgaris , a traditional Chinese medicine, has a strong contact killing effect against larvae of the red flour beetle. Furthermore, one OBP gene, TcOBPC11 , was significantly induced after exposure to EO. RNA interference (RNAi) against TcOBPC11 led to higher mortality compared with the controls after EO treatment, suggesting that this OBP gene is associated with defense of the beetle against EO and leads to a decrease in sensitivity to the EO. Tissue expression profiling showed that expression of TcOBPC11 was higher in the fat body, Malpighian tubule, and hemolymph than in other larval tissues, and was mainly expressed in epidermis, fat body, and antennae from the early adult. The developmental expression profile revealed that expression of TcOBPC11 was higher in late larval stages and adult stages than in other developmental stages. These data indicate that TcOBPC11 may be involved in sequestration of exogenous toxicants in the larvae of T. castaneum . Our results provide a theoretical basis for the degradation mechanism of exogenous toxicants and identify potential novel targets for controlling the beetle.
Host specialization is an ubiquitous character in aphid populations. Many polyphagous aphid populations usually consist of several subpopulations that have strong fidelity to a specific host or a subset of host range. Host specialization is an evolutional result of food habit of insects. However, genetic basis and molecular mechanism of host specialization are still unclear. In this study, we presented a comparative analysis on global gene expression profiles of three lineages of Aphis gossypii Glover: cotton-specialized (CO), cucurbit-specialized (CU), and CU reared on cowpea (CU-cowpea), using RNA-Seq method. More than 157 million clean reads and 38,398 different unigenes were generated from transcriptomes of these three aphid lineages. The 1,106 down- and 2,835 up-regulated genes were found between CO and CU, and 812 down- and 14,492 up-regulated genes between CU-cowpea and CU. Differentially expressed genes between CO and CU were enriched in sugar metabolism, immune system process, pathogen infection or symbiosis, and salivary secretion. Genes associated with cytochrome P450, major facilitator superfamily, and salivary effector were differentially expressed between CO and CU, which might be involved in determining host specialization. UDP-glycosyltransferases genes were sensitive to host shift. Carboxylesterases and digestion-related protease genes were related to both the host specialization and host shift of aphids. Expression levels of 22 out of 24 genes of CO and CU measured by RT-qPCR method were as similar as the results from RNA-seq method. This study provides a road map for future study on molecular mechanism of host specialization in aphids.
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