Drahun Ivan, Morrison Keagan, Poole Elise A, van Herk Willem G, Cassone Bryan J
Department of Biology, Brandon University, Brandon, Manitoba, Canada.
Agassiz Research and Development Centre, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Agassiz, British Columbia, Canada.
Insect Mol Biol. 2025 Feb;34(1):203-217. doi: 10.1111/imb.12962. Epub 2024 Oct 9.
Nearly all insects harbour bacterial communities that can have a profound effect on their life history, including regulating and shaping host metabolism, development, immunity and fitness. The bacteriomes of several coleopterans have been described; however, very little has been reported for wireworms. These long-lived larvae of click beetles (Coleoptera: Elateridae) are major agricultural pests of a variety of crops grown in the Canadian Prairies. Consequently, the goal of this study was to characterise the bacteriomes of five of the most significant pest species within the region: Limonius californicus, Hypnoidus abbreviatus, H. bicolor, Aeolus mellillus and Dalopius spp. To do this, we collected larvae from southern Manitoba fields (pre-seeding) and carried out 16S rRNA sequencing on individual specimens. Our results indicate wireworms have diverse and taxon-rich bacterial communities, with over 400 genera identified predominately from the phyla Proteobacteria, Actinobacteriota, Bacteroidota and Firmicutes. However, each species had nine or fewer genera comprising >80% of their bacteriome. Network analyses revealed some community structuring consistent among species, which may culminate in shaping/regulating host biology. Moreover, the microbial signatures were influenced by both ontogeny (early vs. late stage larvae) and reproductive strategy (sexual vs. parthenogenetic), with a myriad of other factors likely contributing to bacterial diversity that are impossible to resolve from our study. Overall, this metagenomics study represents the first to characterise the bacteriomes of wireworms in the Canadian Prairies and the findings could assist in the development of sustainable management strategies for these important agricultural pests.
几乎所有昆虫都携带着细菌群落，这些群落会对它们的生活史产生深远影响，包括调节和塑造宿主的新陈代谢、发育、免疫和健康状况。几种鞘翅目昆虫的菌瘤已被描述；然而，关于金针虫的报道却非常少。这些叩头虫（鞘翅目：叩甲科）的长寿幼虫是加拿大草原上种植的多种作物的主要农业害虫。因此，本研究的目的是对该地区五种最重要的害虫种类的菌瘤进行特征描述：加利福尼亚金针虫、短缩潜根金针虫、双色潜根金针虫、美列奥金针虫和达洛金针虫属。为此，我们从马尼托巴省南部的田地（播种前）收集了幼虫，并对单个样本进行了16S rRNA测序。我们的结果表明，金针虫具有多样且分类丰富的细菌群落，鉴定出了400多个属，主要来自变形菌门、放线菌门、拟杆菌门和厚壁菌门。然而，每个物种的菌瘤中，有9个或更少的属占其菌瘤的80%以上。网络分析显示，物种间存在一些一致的群落结构，这可能最终影响/调节宿主生物学。此外，微生物特征受个体发育（早期与晚期幼虫）和繁殖策略（有性与孤雌生殖）的影响，还有许多其他因素可能导致细菌多样性，而这些因素在我们的研究中无法解析。总体而言，这项宏基因组学研究是首次对加拿大草原上金针虫的菌瘤进行特征描述，研究结果有助于为这些重要的农业害虫制定可持续的管理策略。
