Effect of host preference on bacterial microbiota of the bed bug species Cimex hemipterus

Abstract

Bed bug infestations are growing globally as a result of increased travel, poor hygiene, and chemical resistance, making treatment more difficult. Like in other arthropods, understanding the bed bug gut microbiota composition can provide valuable insights for developing safe and effective control strategies by manipulating the bacteria found within. So far, little is known about how blood-meal sources impact the microbial compositions of bed bugs (Cimex hemipterus). We studied bed bug bacterial diversity after feeding on five host species: Humans, rats, mice, guinea pigs and bats. Bed bugs were fed on different blood sources every two days for 10 minutes, and DNA samples were extracted and analyzed using Illumina sequencing and the DADA2 pipeline method. The findings show that bacterial composition and diversity differed based on the blood-meal source, with only the Proteobacteria phylum consistently dominant across all bed bug samples (158011 sequences ), the most dominant genera were Wolbachia (136134 sequences, 86.15%) followed by Pectobacterium (21708, 13.74% sequences). The Wolbachia was found in three strains: Wolbachia1, Wolbachia2 and Wolbachia3. These represented 85.03% (134,367 sequences), 1.08% (1,701 sequences), and 0.04% (66 sequences) of the Wolbachia diversity in our samples. Furthermore, Salmonella with 158 (0.1%) sequences and Massilia with 11 (0.01%) sequences were the only pathogenic bacteria and were found in bed bugs fed on Guinea pigs and humans respectively. Our findings indicate that bed bugs feeding on humans have greater microbial diversity compared to those feeding on guinea pigs, rats, mice, or bats.