Infestation of Rice by Gall Midge Influences Density and Diversity of and in the Host Plant Microbiome.

The virulence of phytophagous insects is predominantly determined by their ability to evade or suppress host defense for their survival. The rice gall midge (GM, ), a monophagous pest of rice, elicits a host defense similar to the one elicited upon pathogen attack. This could be due to the GM feeding behaviour, wherein the GM endosymbionts are transferred to the host plant oral secretions, and as a result, the host mounts an appropriate defense response(s) (., up-regulation of the salicylic acid pathway) against these endosymbionts. The current study aimed to analyze the microbiome present at the feeding site of GM maggots to determine the exchange of bacterial species between GM and its host and to elucidate their role in rice-GM interaction using a next-generation sequencing approach. Our results revealed differential representation of the phylum Proteobacteria in the GM-infested and -uninfested rice tissues. Furthermore, analysis of the species diversity of and supergroups at the feeding sites indicated the exchange of bacterial species between GM and its host upon infestation. As rice-GM microbial associations remain relatively unstudied, these findings not only add to our current understanding of microbe-assisted insect-plant interactions but also provide valuable insights into how these bacteria drive insect-plant coevolution. Moreover, to the best of our knowledge, this is the first report analyzing the microbiome of a host plant (rice) at the feeding site of its insect pest (GM).