Fungal flora of the digestive tract of Rhodnius prolixus, Rhodnius neglectus, Diptelanogaster maximus and Panstrongylus megistus, vectors of Trypanosoma cruzi, Chagas, 1909

Abstract

This paper reports a study on the mycobiota in the digestive tract of four important species of triatomines: Rhodnius prolixus, R. neglectus, Diptelanogaster maximus and Panstrongylus megistus. The digestive tracts of 90 adults and 425 nymphs of these four triatomine species were studied and 365 fungal strains were isolated. The genera with the greatest number of species were Aspergillus, Penicillium (14 species in each genus), Acremonium and Cladosporium (three species in each genus), and the most frequent species, in decreasing order, were Aspergillus awamori, Penicillium corylophilum, Cladosporium herbarum and Aspergillus niger. It was concluded that, among the isolated fungi, Aspergillus niger and Penicillium corylophilum might be part of the natural flora of the digestive tract of triatomines.

The Fungal Microbiota of the Digestive Tract of the Chagas Disease Vectors Triatoma infestans Klug, 1834 and Panstrongylus megistus Burmeister, 1835

“…After seeding, the dishes were incubated in type B.O.D. (Biochemical Oxygen Demand) climate chambers at a temperature of 25°C [30,31,28].…”

“…The presence of different fungi in the digestive tract of triatomines has been demonstrated [26,27,28,29]. Nonetheless, there is a lack of studies on fungal microbiota, with studies in the literature coming from only two research groups: Moraes et al in Brazil and Marti et al in Argentina [26,27,30,31,28,29].…”

Immune defence mechanisms of triatomines against bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites

“…There is a shortage of information about the fungi-triatomine relationship. R. prolixus was the first triatomines species from which fungi were isolated, first finding Nocardia rhodnii (Moraes et al, 2000) and later Aspergillus versicolor (Moraes et al, 2000(Moraes et al, , 2004. Moreover, the principal fungi from the digestive tract of triatomine adults and nymphs (including T. brasiliensis, T. infestans, T. pseudomaculata and T. sordida under laboratory conditions and T. vitticeps in wild specimens) were Aspergillus flavus, A. ochraceus, A. parasiticus, Fusarium sp., Trichoderma harzianum and Verticillium sp.…”

“…infected with Plasmodium species (Thomas & Read, 2007). Moraes et al (2004) just reported high susceptibility to both fungi and T. cruzi in P. megistus and R. prolixus, and low susceptibility of these pathogens in D. maxima and R. neglectus. Perhaps the immune response used by triatomines has the same effect on both the fungus and parasite.…”

Microbiota da flora intestinal de besouros (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae) do Parque Olhos D’água

“…Steinhaus (1941) estudou a flora bacteriana de 30 espécies de insetos e constatou a presença de mais de 20 espécies de bactérias habitantes do trato digestivo desses insetos. Moraes et al (2004) estudaram a presença de fungos na flora intestinal de vetores do Trypanossoma cruzi Chagas, 1909, e constataram a presença de 34 espécies de fungos. A dispersão de fungos e bactérias de importância médica, por formigas e baratas, em leitos de hospitais, também, já foi relatada em dois estudos (MOREIRA et al, 2003;LEMOS et al, 2006).…”