1. New Insights on the Zeugodacus cucurbitae (Coquillett) Bacteriome
- Author
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Mahfuza Khan, Panagiota Stathopoulou, George Tsiamis, Apostolis Sapounas, Kanjana Khaeso, Costas Batargias, and Elias Asimakis
- Subjects
0301 basic medicine ,Microbiology (medical) ,symbiome ,Host (biology) ,030106 microbiology ,Zoology ,Bacteriome ,Context (language use) ,next generation sequencing (NGS) ,Biology ,melon fly ,biology.organism_classification ,Microbiology ,03 medical and health sciences ,Sterile insect technique ,030104 developmental biology ,lcsh:Biology (General) ,Natural population growth ,Virology ,natural population ,Bactrocera ,16S rRNA gene ,Domestication ,lcsh:QH301-705.5 ,Relative species abundance - Abstract
Various factors, including the insect host, diet, and surrounding ecosystem can shape the structure of the bacterial communities of insects. We have employed next generation, high-throughput sequencing of the 16S rRNA to characterize the bacteriome of wild Zeugodacus (Bactrocera) cucurbitae (Coquillett) flies from three regions of Bangladesh. The tested populations developed distinct bacterial communities with differences in bacterial composition, suggesting that geography has an impact on the fly bacteriome. The dominant bacteria belonged to the families Enterobacteriaceae, Dysgomonadaceae and Orbaceae, with the genera Dysgonomonas, Orbus and Citrobacter showing the highest relative abundance across populations. Network analysis indicated variable interactions between operational taxonomic units (OTUs), with cases of mutual exclusion and copresence. Certain bacterial genera with high relative abundance were also characterized by a high degree of interactions. Interestingly, genera with a low relative abundance like Shimwellia, Gilliamella, and Chishuiella were among those that showed abundant interactions, suggesting that they are also important components of the bacterial community. Such knowledge could help us identify ideal wild populations for domestication in the context of the sterile insect technique or similar biotechnological methods. Further characterization of this bacterial diversity with transcriptomic and metabolic approaches, could also reveal their specific role in Z. cucurbitae physiology.
- Published
- 2021
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