Deng Jun, Yu Yuhua, Wang Xu, Liu Qian, Huang Xiaolei
State Key Laboratory of Ecological Pest Control for Fujian and Taiwan Crops, College of Plant Protection, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou 350002, China.
Microorganisms. 2021 Feb 16;9(2):404. doi: 10.3390/microorganisms9020404.
Mutual relationships with symbionts play a crucial role in the evolution and ecology of plant-feeding hemipteran insects. However, there was no specific dominant bacterium observed in soft scales (Coccidae) in the previous studies, it is still unclear whether soft scales have specific primary symbionts. In this study, a nuclear ribosomal internal transcribed spacer (ITS)gene fragment was used to analyze the diversity of fungal communities in 28 Coccidae species based on next-generation sequencing (NGS). Furthermore, samples from different developmental stages of were sequenced to illustrate the dynamics of fungal community. Our results showed that Coccidae-associated fungi (COF) were prevalent in all 28 tested species with high relative abundance. Meanwhile, the first and second instars of , two important stages for growth and development, had high relative abundance of COF, while the relative abundances in other stages were low, ranging from 0.68% to 2.07%. The result of fluorescent in situ hybridization showed that the COF were widely present in hemolymph and vertically transmitted from mother to offspring. Our study confirms that the COF have intimate associations with the growth and development of soft scales, and provides new evidence to support that COF are primary fungal symbionts for Coccidae.
与共生体的相互关系在取食植物的半翅目昆虫的进化和生态中起着至关重要的作用。然而，在先前的研究中，在软蚧科中未观察到特定的优势细菌，软蚧科是否具有特定的初级共生体仍不清楚。在本研究中，基于下一代测序（NGS），使用核糖体内部转录间隔区（ITS）基因片段分析了28种软蚧科物种中真菌群落的多样性。此外，对不同发育阶段的样本进行测序，以阐明真菌群落的动态变化。我们的结果表明，与软蚧科相关的真菌（COF）在所有28个测试物种中普遍存在，相对丰度较高。同时，若虫一龄和二龄这两个生长发育的重要阶段，COF的相对丰度较高，而其他阶段的相对丰度较低，范围为0.68%至2.07%。荧光原位杂交结果表明，COF广泛存在于血淋巴中，并可从母体垂直传递给后代。我们的研究证实，COF与软蚧科的生长发育密切相关，并为支持COF是软蚧科的初级真菌共生体提供了新的证据。
