Characterization of the bacterial communities of psyllids associated with Rutaceae in Bhutan by high throughput sequencing

Abstract

Background: Several plant-pathogenic bacteria are transmitted by insect vector species that often also act as hosts. In this interface, these bacteria encounter plant endophytic, insect endosymbiotic and other microbes. Here, we used high throughput sequencing to examine the bacterial communities of five different psyllids associated with citrus and related plants of Rutaceae in Bhutan: Diaphorina citri, Diaphorina communis, Cornopsylla rotundiconis, Cacopsylla heterogena and an unidentified Cacopsylla sp. Results: The microbiomes of the psyllids largely comprised their obligate P-endosymbiont 'Candidatus Carsonella ruddii', and one or two S-endosymbionts that are fixed and specific to each lineage. In addition, all contained Wolbachia strains; the Bhutanese accessions of D. citri were dominated by a Wolbachia strain first found in American isolates of D. citri, while D. communis accessions were dominated by the Wolbachia strain, wDi, first detected in D. citri from China. The S-endosymbionts from the five psyllids grouped with those from other psyllid taxa; all D. citri and D. communis individuals contained sequences matching 'Candidatus Profftella armatura' that has previously only been reported from other Diaphorina species, and the remaining psyllid species contained OTUs related to unclassified Enterobacteriaceae. The plant pathogenic 'Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus' was found in D. citri but not in D. communis. Furthermore, an unidentified 'Candidatus Liberibacter sp.' occurred at low abundance in both Co. rotundiconis and the unidentified Cacopsylla sp. sampled from Zanthoxylum sp.; the status of this new liberibacter as a plant pathogen and its potential plant hosts are currently unknown. The bacterial communities of Co. rotundiconis also contained a range of OTUs with similarities to bacteria previously found in samples taken from various environmental sources.

Uncovering Symbionts Across the Psyllid Tree of Life and the Discovery of a New Liberibacter Species, “Candidatus” Liberibacter capsica

“…Our study provides the most taxonomically and geographically diverse dataset of psyllid endosymbiont associations to date, covering 44 divergent taxa across five families. Our results suggest that psyllids house minimal bacterial communities, in agreement with more regionally focused studies of psyllid microbiomes and the microbiomes of other hemipterans (Thao et al, 2000a;Jing et al, 2014;Overholt et al, 2015;Morrow et al, 2017Morrow et al, , 2020Nakabachi et al, 2020a). Similar to the findings of Morrow et al (2017), we found that bacteria in the class Enterobacteriaceae are particularly prevalent in psyllid microbiomes (Figure 1 and Supplementary Table 5).…”

The Incidence of Wolbachia Bacterial Endosymbiont in Bisexual and Parthenogenetic Populations of the Psyllid Genus Cacopsylla (Hemiptera, Psylloidea)

“…For the family Psyllidae, only 26 Wolbachia strains are reported in PubMLST-Wolbachia (none of these belong to the genus Cacopsylla)-eight were isolated from Diaphorina citri and one was isolated from Heteropsylla sp., while for 17 isolated strains the host genus and the host species were not determined. Nevertheless, a number of studies dedicated to Cacopsylla associations with various bacterial endosymbionts [62,63], including Wolbachia [64,65], have been published over the past decade. It should be noted, that most of the published investigations contain data on a single (or very low number) of species, in which usually only a few individuals were tested.…”

Bacteriomic Analyses of Asian Citrus Psyllid and Citrus Samples Infected With “Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus” in Southern California and Huanglongbing Management Implications

“…Put together, the exact biological nature and even the origin of the A-SBCA19 Buchnera are not clear and deserve further investigation. Based on 16S rRNA gene sequence, Morrow et al (2020) reported Buchnera in Diaphorina communis, as well as in other Cacopsylla species and Cornopsylla rotundiconis.…”