New Insights on the Zeugodacus cucurbitae (Coquillett) Bacteriome

Abstract

Various factors, including the insect host, diet, and surrounding ecosystem can shape the structure of the bacterial communities of insects. We have employed next generation, high-throughput sequencing of the 16S rRNA to characterize the bacteriome of wild Zeugodacus (Bactrocera) cucurbitae (Coquillett) flies from three regions of Bangladesh. The tested populations developed distinct bacterial communities with differences in bacterial composition, suggesting that geography has an impact on the fly bacteriome. The dominant bacteria belonged to the families Enterobacteriaceae, Dysgomonadaceae and Orbaceae, with the genera Dysgonomonas, Orbus and Citrobacter showing the highest relative abundance across populations. Network analysis indicated variable interactions between operational taxonomic units (OTUs), with cases of mutual exclusion and copresence. Certain bacterial genera with high relative abundance were also characterized by a high degree of interactions. Interestingly, genera with a low relative abundance like Shimwellia, Gilliamella, and Chishuiella were among those that showed abundant interactions, suggesting that they are also important components of the bacterial community. Such knowledge could help us identify ideal wild populations for domestication in the context of the sterile insect technique or similar biotechnological methods. Further characterization of this bacterial diversity with transcriptomic and metabolic approaches, could also reveal their specific role in Z. cucurbitae physiology.

Microbiome assembly on Drosophila body surfaces benefits the flies to combat fungal infections

“…Considering the frequent re-classifications of bacteria and the delay in sequence availability, it is possible that the previously reported Orbus from Drosophila might contain or belong to Gilliamella . In support, the Gilliamella OTU has been recently detected as one of the core or common members of the gut microbiotas of different flies ( Asimakis et al., 2021 ; Jose et al., 2021 ). We confirmed that Gilliamella was also present in fly gut samples.…”

Characterization of the Bacterial Microbiome in Natural Populations of Barley Stem Gall Midge, Mayetiola hordei, in Morocco

“…Since the research on the bacterial microbiome of this insect is still limited, it is the first time that changes in the structure of microbial communities have been observed in populations of BSGM with various geographic distributions. However, it has also been reported in other fly or insect species, including cases of the Hessian fly (M. destructor ) [ 34 , 61 ], oriental fruit fly ( Bactrocera dorsalis ) [ 90 , 91 ], and melon fly ( Zeugodacus cucurbitae ) [ 92 , 93 ].…”

“…Proteobacteria was the predominant phylum detected in the four regions of Abda, Doukkala, Fes-Meknes, and Rabat. This phylum was also the most abundant in other insects, such as the Hessian fly from Morocco (three out of four regions) [ 34 ], the Asian rice gall midge ( O. oryzae ) from India [ 63 ], and the melon fly from Bangladesh ( Z. cucurbitae ) [ 92 , 93 ]. However, the classification of the rest of the phyla, Actinobacteria, Bacteroidetes, and Firmicutes, was different from one region to the other, in agreement with the results for other insects [ 34 , 62 , 92 ].…”

“…This phylum was also the most abundant in other insects, such as the Hessian fly from Morocco (three out of four regions) [ 34 ], the Asian rice gall midge ( O. oryzae ) from India [ 63 ], and the melon fly from Bangladesh ( Z. cucurbitae ) [ 92 , 93 ]. However, the classification of the rest of the phyla, Actinobacteria, Bacteroidetes, and Firmicutes, was different from one region to the other, in agreement with the results for other insects [ 34 , 62 , 92 ]. Additionally, a recently characterized phylum was detected in our study as the fifth most-common phylum among the four studied regions, with a prevalence of 32% (24 out of 75 samples), that is, candidate phylum Dependentiae (also known as TM6).…”

Role of gut symbionts of insect pests: A novel target for insect-pest control

“…To decode the functional implications of these gut symbionts, it is necessary to study their distribution. Thus, we have summarized recent metagenomics studies (whole insect and insect gut) of several insect pests which is demonstrated by phylum wise composition of bacteria in Figure 1A ( Yong et al, 2017 ; Tokuda et al, 2018 ; Bozorov et al, 2019 ; Gawande et al, 2019 ; Shah et al, 2020 ; Asimakis et al, 2021 ; Deguenon et al, 2021 ; He et al, 2021 ; Tegtmeier et al, 2021 ; Yu et al, 2021 ; Csorba et al, 2022 ; Li S. et al, 2022 ; Majumder et al, 2022 ; Wang et al, 2022 ). We have noticed with taken examples that Proteobacteria, Firmicutes and Actinobacteria were the most dominant phyla present in the insect gut could be due to their diverse roles in nutrition.…”