Developmental stages and gut microenvironments influence gut microbiota dynamics in the invasive beetle Popillia japonica Newman (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae)

Summary Popillia japonica Newman (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae) is a highly polyphagous invasive beetle originating from Japan. This insect is highly resilient and able to rapidly adapt to new vegetation. Insect‐associated microorganisms can play important roles in insect physiology, helping their hosts...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Environmental microbiology 2019-11, Vol.21 (11), p.4343-4359
Main Authors: Chouaia, Bessem, Goda, Nizar, Mazza, Giuseppe, Alali, Sumer, Florian, Fiorella, Gionechetti, Fabrizia, Callegari, Matteo, Gonella, Elena, Magoga, Giulia, Fusi, Marco, Crotti, Elena, Daffonchio, Daniele, Alma, Alberto, Paoli, Francesco, Roversi, Pio Federico, Marianelli, Leonardo, Montagna, Matteo
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
Bacteria
Bacteria - classification
Biodegradation
Christensenellaceae
Coleoptera
Coleoptera - growth & development
Coleoptera - microbiology
Communities
Community composition
Composition
Developmental stages
Female
Gastrointestinal Microbiome
Herbivores
Insects
Intestinal microflora
Invasive insects
Invasive species
Larvae
Life cycle
Life Cycle Stages
Life cycles
Life Sciences
Male
Microbiota
Microenvironments
Microorganisms
Oxidoreductions
Popillia japonica
Redox potential
Scarabaeidae
Soil
Soil bacteria
Soil microorganisms
Soils
Stability
Symbionts
Taxonomy
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Summary:Summary Popillia japonica Newman (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae) is a highly polyphagous invasive beetle originating from Japan. This insect is highly resilient and able to rapidly adapt to new vegetation. Insect‐associated microorganisms can play important roles in insect physiology, helping their hosts to adapt to changing conditions and potentially contributing to an insect's invasive potential. Such symbiotic bacteria can be part of a core microbiota that is stably transmitted throughout the host's life cycle or selectively recruited from the environment at each developmental stage. The aim of this study was to investigate the origin, stability and turnover of the bacterial communities associated with an invasive population of P. japonica from Italy. Our results demonstrate that soil microbes represent an important source of gut bacteria for P. japonica larvae, but as the insect develops, its gut microbiota richness and diversity decreased substantially, paralleled by changes in community composition. Notably, only 16.75% of the soil bacteria present in larvae are maintained until the adult stage. We further identified the micro‐environments of different gut sections as an important factor shaping microbiota composition in this species, likely due to differences in pH, oxygen availability and redox potential. In addition, P. japonica also harboured a stable bacterial community across all developmental stages, consisting of taxa well known for the degradation of plant material, namely the families Ruminococcacae, Christensenellaceae and Lachnospiraceae. Interestingly, the family Christensenallaceae had so far been observed exclusively in humans. However, the Christensenellaceae operational taxonomic units found in P. japonica belong to different taxonomic clades within this family.
ISSN:1462-2912
1462-2920
DOI:10.1111/1462-2920.14797