Madden Anne A, Grassetti Andrew, Soriano Jonathan-Andrew N, Starks Philip T
Department of Biology, Tufts University, Medford, MA 02155, USA.
Environ Entomol. 2013 Aug;42(4):703-10. doi: 10.1603/EN12159.
Actinomycetes-a group of antimicrobial producing bacteria-have been successfully cultured and characterized from the nest material of diverse arthropods. Some are symbionts that produce antimicrobial chemicals found to protect nest brood and resources from pathogenic microbes. Others have no known fitness relationship with their associated insects, but have been found to produce antimicrobials in vitro. Consequently, insect nest material is being investigated as a new source of novel antimicrobial producing actinomycetes, which could be harnessed for therapeutic potential. To extend studies of actinomycete-insect associations beyond soil-substrate dwelling insects and wood boring excavators, we conducted a preliminary assessment of the actinomycetes within the nests of the paper wasp, Polistes dominulus (Christ). We found that actinomycetes were readily cultured from nest material across multiple invasive P. dominulus populations-including members of the genera Streptomyces, Micromonospora, and Actinoplanes. Thirty of these isolates were assayed for antimicrobial activity against the challenge bacteria Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Serratia marcescens, and Bacillus subtilis. Sixty percent of isolates inhibited the growth of at least one challenge strain. This study provides the first assessment of bacteria associated with nests of P. dominulus, and the first record of antimicrobial producing actinomycetes isolated from social wasps. We provide a new system to explore nest associated actinomycetes from a ubiquitous and cosmopolitan group of insects.
放线菌是一类能产生抗菌物质的细菌，已成功从多种节肢动物的巢穴材料中培养并鉴定出来。其中一些是共生菌，它们产生的抗菌化学物质可保护巢穴中的幼虫和资源免受致病微生物侵害。另一些与相关昆虫不存在已知的适应性关系，但已发现它们在体外能产生抗菌物质。因此，昆虫巢穴材料正作为一种新型抗菌放线菌的新来源进行研究，有望用于治疗。为了将放线菌与昆虫关联的研究扩展到非土壤栖息昆虫和蛀木昆虫之外，我们对造纸胡蜂（Polistes dominulus (Christ)）巢穴中的放线菌进行了初步评估。我们发现，在多个入侵的多色胡蜂种群的巢穴材料中很容易培养出放线菌，包括链霉菌属、小单孢菌属和游动放线菌属的成员。对其中30株分离株针对铜绿假单胞菌、大肠杆菌、金黄色葡萄球菌、粘质沙雷氏菌和枯草芽孢杆菌等受试细菌进行了抗菌活性测定。60%的分离株抑制了至少一种受试菌株的生长。本研究首次评估了与多色胡蜂巢穴相关的细菌，也是首次记录从社会性胡蜂中分离出的产抗菌物质放线菌。我们提供了一个新系统，用于探索来自一类广泛分布且世界性的昆虫的巢穴相关放线菌。
