Diversity of bacterial symbionts associated with the tropical plant bug Monalonion velezangeli (Hemiptera: Miridae) revealed by high-throughput 16SrRNA sequencing.

Abstract

Insects and microbes have developed complex symbiotic relationships that evolutively and ecologically play beneficial roles for both, the symbiont and the host. In most Hemiptera insects, bacterial symbionts offer mainly nutritional, defense and reproductive roles and have promoted the adaptive radiation of several hemipteran phytophagous lineages. The tropical plant bug Monalonion velezangeli (Hemiptera: Miridae) is a polyphagous herbivore considered an important insect pest for several economically-relevant tropical crops; however, information about the composition of its bacterial microbiota was missing. In this study, we describe the diversity and structure of the bacterial microbiota in the nymph and adult life stages of M. velezangeli using Illumina high-throughput sequencing of 16S ribosomal RNA gene amplicons (meta-barcoding). We found that both insect life stages share a similar microbiota in terms of bacterial diversity and community structure. The intracellular symbiont Wolbachia (~92%) dominated the overall microbiome composition in these life stages, and along with bacteria genera Romboutsia, Ignavibacterium, Clostridium, Allobaculum, Paracoccus, Methylobacterium, Faecalibacterium, Collinsella, Rothia, Sphingomonas and other 4 undetermined genera, were found as members of the core microbiota. Based on PCR screening and DNA sequencing of wsp gene, Wolbachia infection was confirmed in almost 80% of samples, represented by two different isolates or strains within the supergroup B. This data opens new questions and avenues to better understand the contribution of symbiotic bacteria in the biological performance of this insect pest and provide bases to explore other insect control methods.