Variation and diversification of the microbiome of Schlechtendalia chinensis on two alternate host plants

Abstract

Schlechtendalia chinensis, a gall-inducing aphid, has two host plants in its life cycle. Its wintering host is a moss (typically Plagiomnium maximoviczii) and its main host is Rhus chinensis (Sumac), on which it forms galls during the summer. This study investigated bacteria associated with S. chinensis living on the two different host plants by sequencing 16S rRNAs. A total of 183 Operational Taxonomic Units (OTUs) from 50 genera were identified from aphids living on moss, whereas 182 OTUs from 49 genera were found from aphids living in Sumac galls. The most abundant bacterial genus among identified OTUs from aphids feeding on both hosts was Buchnera. Despite similar numbers of OTUs, the composition of bacterial taxa showed significant differences between aphids living on moss and those living on R. chinensis. Specifically, there were 12 OTUs from 5 genera (family) unique to aphids living on moss, and 11 OTUs from 4 genera (family) unique to aphids feeding in galls on R. chinensis. Principal Coordinate Analysis (PCoA) also revealed that bacteria from moss-residing aphids clustered differently from aphids collected from galls. Our results provide a foundation for future analyses on the roles of symbiotic bacteria in plant-aphid interactions in general, and how gall-specific symbionts differ in this respect.

Host species identity shapes the diversity and structure of insect microbiota

“…While insect species was the strongest driver of structure and diversity of bacterial communities in this study, diet also showed a significative effect. Several previous studies showed that insect-associated microbial communities are often shaped by their host's diet, for example in termites (Mikaelyan et al, 2015), aphids (Wu et al, 2018;Xu et al, 2019Xu et al, , 2020Holt et al, 2020), bugs (Martinez et al, 2019), beetles (Kim et al, 2017), fruit flies (Malacrinò et al, 2018;Majumder et al, 2019;Woruba et al, 2019;Asimakis et al, 2019), soldier flies (Bruno et al, 2019) and ants (Russell et al, 2009). Interestingly, the bacterial communities associated with Phtorimaea operculella varied even according to the plant tissue insects were feeding on (Zheng et al, 2020).…”

Molecular and Histologic Adaptation of Horned Gall Induced by the Aphid Schlechtendalia chinensis (Pemphigidae)

“…The molecular mechanism of this selected gene regulation in galls remains to be determined. Moreover, 99% of S. chinensis symbiotic bacteria are Buchnera spp., the main contributors of amino acids for aphids [ 31 ]. We suppose the enhanced biosynthesis pathways of essential amino acids compensate for the lack of amino acids synthesized by Buchnera spp.…”

The Diversity of Bacteria Associated with the Invasive Gall Wasp Dryocosmus kuriphilus, Its Galls and a Specialist Parasitoid on Chestnuts

“…and Pseudomonas sp. are predominant in D. kuriphilus and widely distributed in galling insects, including D. kuriphilus, gall midges, gall aphids, gall sawflies and thrips [17,18,[23][24][25][26][27]63,64]. Many species of the Serratia and Pseudomonas genera are plant pathogenic bacteria [65].…”

“…of Leptocybe invasa can resist the secondary metabolites of plants and expand the range of host feeding, which is beneficial for the colonization of L. invasa [16,17]. Buchnera aphidicola synthesizes essential amino acids for gall aphids and facilitates the stress tolerance and reproduction of the host [18,19]. Furthermore, Wolbachia may cause the parthenogenesis of some galling insects [20].…”

“…and Pseudomonas fluorescens from the body of D. kuriphilus [22]. Notably, the species of Pseudomonas genus are the predominant bacteria in many galling insects, including gall midges, gall aphids, gall sawflies, thrips and L. invasa [17,18,[23][24][25][26][27]. Furthermore, T. sinensis are infected with the symbiotic bacteria Wolbachia [28].…”