Yang Tian, Wang Xiaojun, Zhou Xiang
State Key Laboratory of Subtropical Silviculture, School of Forestry and Biotechnology, Zhejiang A&F University, Hangzhou 311300, China.
Insects. 2022 Nov 10;13(11):1040. doi: 10.3390/insects13111040.
Insect-associated microbes exert diverse effects on host fitness. This study provides insights into the microbiota of the bamboo aphid, and their response to infection. 16S rRNA and ITS sequencing data were used to analyze the bacterial and fungal samples associated with healthy, infected, and starved aphids. At ≥97% nucleotide similarity, the total reads were clustered into 79 bacteria and 97 fungi operational Taxonomic Units (OTUs). The phyla Proteobacteria and Ascomycota dominated the bacterial and fungal communities, respectively. The significant divergence in OTU distribution presented differential profiles of the microbiota in response to host conditions. Lower α-diversity indices were found in bacterial and fungal diversity when the aphids were experiencing fungal infection and starvation stresses, respectively. The β-diversity analyses of the communities showed significant differences among the three host conditions, demonstrating that aphid-associated microbiota could significantly shift in response to varying host conditions. Moreover, some OTUs increased under fungal infection, which potentially increased aphid susceptibility. Presumably, infection contributed to this increase by causing the disintegration of host tissues other than host starvation. In conclusion, understanding the differentiation of aphid microbiota caused by fungal entomopathogens helped facilitate the development of novel pest management strategies.
与昆虫相关的微生物对宿主健康有多种影响。本研究深入探讨了竹蚜的微生物群及其对感染的反应。利用16S rRNA和ITS测序数据对健康、感染和饥饿蚜虫相关的细菌和真菌样本进行分析。在核苷酸相似度≥97%时,总读数被聚类为79个细菌和97个真菌操作分类单元(OTU)。变形菌门和子囊菌门分别在细菌和真菌群落中占主导地位。OTU分布的显著差异呈现了微生物群对宿主状况的不同反应。当蚜虫分别遭受真菌感染和饥饿胁迫时,细菌和真菌多样性的α-多样性指数较低。群落的β-多样性分析表明,三种宿主状况之间存在显著差异,表明与蚜虫相关的微生物群会因宿主状况的变化而发生显著变化。此外,一些OTU在真菌感染时增加,这可能增加了蚜虫的易感性。据推测,感染通过导致宿主组织解体而非宿主饥饿导致了这种增加。总之,了解真菌病原昆虫引起的蚜虫微生物群分化有助于推动新型害虫管理策略的发展。