Molecular approaches to study the insect gut symbiotic microbiota at the ‘omics’ age

Abstract

Insect gut symbiotic microbiota play essential roles in the growth, development, pathogenesis and environmental adaptation of host insects. The molecular and systems level analysis of insect gut symbiotic microbial community will allow us to discover novel biocatalysts for biomass deconstruction and to develop innovative strategies for pest management. We hereby review the various molecular biology techniques as applied to insect gut symbiont analysis. This review aims to serve as an informative resource for experimental design and research strategy development in the field. We first discuss various strategies for sample preparation and their pros and cons. The traditional molecular techniques like DGGE, RFLP and FISH are covered with respect to how they are applied to study the composition, diversity and dynamics of insect gut symbiotic microbiota. We then focus on the various ‘omics’ techniques. The metagenome analysis together with the recent advancements in next‐generation sequencing will provide enormous sequencing information, allowing in‐depth microbial diversity analysis and modeling of pathways for biological processes such as biomass degradation. The metagenome sequencing will also enable the study of system dynamics and gene expression with metatranscriptome and metaproteome methods. The integration of different ‘omics’ level data will allow us to understand how insect gut works as a system to carry out its functions. The molecular and systems‐level understanding will also guide the reverse design of next‐generation biorefinery.

Declining diversity of egg-associated bacteria during development of naturally spawned whitefish embryos (Coregonus spp.)

“…Various types of animals have been used to study symbiotic interactions in the wild, such as insects (Dillon and Dillon 2004;Vasanthakumar et al 2008), mice (Mus musculus) (Schloss et al 2012;Pantoja-Feliciano et al 2013), and cattle (Bos primigenius) (Hooper et al 2002). These studies provided important insights into various biological contexts, including, for example, host invasion (Schloss et al 2012;Pantoja-Feliciano et al 2013), the evolution of new traits (Ley et al 2008), speciation (Sevellec et al 2014), biocatalyzation processes for biomass deconstruction, and pest management (Dillon and Dillon 2004;Shi et al 2010). Here, we focus on a question that has received comparatively little attention, namely whether and how early host development affects the composition of associated bacterial communities under natural conditions.…”

Compartmentalized microbial composition, oxygen gradients and nitrogen fixation in the gut ofOdontotaenius disjunctus

“…One of these yeasts is the potentially commercially important species, Scheffersomyces stipitis (syn. Pichia stipitis), that has the ability to ferment xylose, a significant component of hemicellulose (Shi et al, 2010). In a detailed study of O. disjunctus gut morphology and gut inhabitants, Nardi et al (2006) divided each gut into four morphologically distinct regions where the gut biota appears to be differentiated as noted previously for fungus-like organisms known as trichomycetes (Lichtwardt et al, 1999).…”

Purification and Identification of Paenibacillus sp., Isolated from Diseased Larvae of Allomyrina dichotoma (Linnaeus, 1771) (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae) in Insect Farms

“…Detection of Paenibacillus species from the infected A. dichotoma larva Pyrosequencing is commonly used for the analyses on the bacterial florae of the various environment such as soil, swamp, and freshwater as well as the intestinal tube and the feces of organism, or for the comparison of the bacterial florae from two or three different environmental region (Boissière et al, 2012;Kim et al, 2010;Matcher et al, 2011;Nacke et al, 2011;Shi et al, 2010;Wong et al, 2011). In insects, several works on the gut bacterial florae were performed (Boissière et al, 2012;Shi et al, 2010;Wong et al, 2011).…”

“…In insects, several works on the gut bacterial florae were performed (Boissière et al, 2012;Shi et al, 2010;Wong et al, 2011). Considering above cases, we tried to compare the gut bacterial florae of three diseased larvae of A. dichotoma from four regions including Yuseong of Daejeon which the larval disease has broken out with those of three healthy larvae.…”