Analysis of Intestinal Microbial Diversity of Four Species of Grasshoppers and Determination of Cellulose Digestibility

Abstract

Grasshoppers (Insecta, Orthoptera, Acridoidea) are a large group of agricultural and animal husbandry pests. They have a large food intake with high utilization of plants fibers. However, the composition of the grasshopper gut microbial community, especially the relationship between gut microbial community and cellulose digestibility, remains unclear. In this research, 16S rRNA gene sequences were used to determine the intestinal microbial diversity of Acrida cinerea, Trilophidia annulata, Atractomorpha sinensis and Sphingonotus mongolicus, and Spearman correlation analysis was performed between the intestinal microbes of grasshoppers and the digestibility of cellulose and hemicellulose. The results showed that Proteobacteria was the dominant phylum and Klebsiella was the dominant genus in the guts of the four species of grasshoppers; there was no significant difference in the species composition of the gut microbes of the four species of grasshoppers. Spearman correlation analysis showed that Brevibacterium and Stenotrophomonas were significantly correlated with cellulose digestibility. Brevibacterium, Clavibacter, Microbacterium and Stenotrophomonas were significantly associated with hemicellulose digestibility. Our results confirmed that the gut microbes of grasshoppers were correlated with the digestibility of cellulose and hemicellulose, and indicated that grasshoppers may have the potential to develop into bioreactors, which can be applied to improve straw utilization efficiency in the future.

Life stage affects the gut microbiota structure of Locusta migratoria

“…This further suggests that grasshoppers can predict changes in their gut microbiota throughout their life history. This study found that Firmicutes and Proteobacteria dominated all life stages in the gut of Locusta migratoria , similar to previous studies on other adult grasshoppers under field conditions, includingSphingonotus mongolicus (Bai et al, 2022), Oedaleus decorus (Ling et al, 2022), Desert locust (Dillon et al, 2002). Firmicutes and Proteobacteria are also the main phyla of other insects, including Praying mantis , Anopheles bicolor ,Rainbow stag beetle , Holotrichia parallela, andBurying beetle (Berasategui et al, 2016;Huang et al, 2012;Vogel et al, 2017;Wang et al, 2020).…”

Microbial gut diversity in four grasshopper species and its correlation with cellulose digestibility

“… Wang et al (2020) determined the cellulose digestibility of three species of grasshoppers, Aiolopus tamulus , Oedaleus decorus asiaticus , and Shirakiacris shirakii , to wheat at 43.95, 38.01, and 44.12%, respectively, and the hemicellulose digestibility of wheat at 17.21, 24.99, and 47.65%, respectively. The digestibility of four grasshopper species, Acrida cinerea , Trilophidia annulata , Atractomorpha sinensis , and Sphingonotus mongolicus , ranged from 49.87 to 67.91% for wheat, and hemicellulose digestibility ranged from 17.77 to 47.51% ( Bai et al, 2022 ). The cellulose digestibility of wheat by the four grasshopper species measured in this research ranged from 45.93 to 65.21%, which was higher than the cellulose digestibility of the above grasshoppers; the hemicellulose digestibility ranged from 7.56 to 32.41%, which was lower than the above grasshoppers.…”

Gut microorganisms of Locusta migratoria in various life stages and its possible influence on cellulose digestibility

“…Glucose and xylose standard curves were plotted with reference 37 . The linear equation of glucose obtained in this experiment was y = 1.7321 x + 0.0083, R 2 = 0.9955, and the linear equation for xylose was y = 53.96 x − 0.0044, R 2 = 0.9969.…”

“…Three parallel experiments were set up for each group, and a three-tube control experiment was performed. Referring to reference 37 , the optical density (OD) values measured for each experimental group were brought to the glucose standard curve to obtain the glucose concentration, which in turn was used to calculate the cellulase activity value of each group using the following formula.…”