Insect phylogeny structures the bacterial communities in the microbiome of psyllids (Hemiptera: Psylloidea) in Aotearoa New Zealand

Abstract

The bacterial microbiome of psyllids has been studied for decades, with a strong focus on the primary and secondary endosymbionts capable of providing essential amino acids for the insects’ diet and therefore playing a key role in the insects’ ability to radiate on novel plant hosts. Here, we combine metabarcoding analysis of the bacterial communities hosted by psyllids with a multi-gene phylogenetic analysis of the insect hosts to determine what factors influence the bacterial diversity of the psyllids’ microbiomes, especially in the context of the dispersal and evolutionary radiation of these insects in Aotearoa New Zealand. Using multi-gene phylogenetics with COI, 18S and EF-1α sequences from 102 psyllid species, we confirmed for the first time monophyly for all the six genera of native/endemic Aotearoa New Zealand psyllids, with indications that they derive from at least six dispersal events to the country. This also revealed that, after its ancestral arrival, the genus Powellia has radiated onto a larger and more diverse range of plants than either Psylla or Ctenarytaina, which is uncommon amongst monophyletic psyllids globally. DNA metabarcoding of the bacterial 16S gene here represents the largest dataset analysed to date from psyllids, including 246 individuals from 73 species. This provides novel evidence that bacterial diversity across psyllid species is strongly associated with psyllid phylogenetic structure, and to a lesser degree to their host plant association and geographic distribution. Furthermore, while the strongest co-phylogenetic signals were derived from the primary and secondary symbionts, a signal of phylosymbiosis was still retained among the remaining taxa of the bacterial microbiome, suggesting potential vertical transmission of bacterial lineages previously unknown to have symbiotic roles.

Community structure of heritable viruses in aDrosophila-parasitoids complex

“…This was not the case. This contrasts with results obtained on bacterial communities, where host phylogeny is the main driver of bacterial communities [6,7].…”

“…This was not the case. This contrasts with results obtained on bacterial communities, where host phylogeny is the main driver of bacterial communities[6, 7]. However, we must stress that our sampling scheme here was limited compared to the datasets used to identify such an effect in insect bacterial communities, which may have reduced our power to detect such an effect.…”

Bacterial communities of the psyllid pest Bactericera cockerelli (Hemiptera: Triozidae) Central haplotype of tomato crops cultivated at different locations of Mexico

“…In recent years, there has been an upsurge in the investigations on the microbiome of phytophagous insects, including psyllids that can act as vectors of plant pathogenic bacteria ( Nakabichi, Inoue & Hirose, 2022a , 2022b ; Martoni et al, 2023 ). The psyllid B. cockerelli is one of the pests with a significant economic impact on Solanaceae family production ( i.e ., Capsicum annuum , Solanum lycopersicon , and S. tuberosum ) in North America, including Mexico ( Rojas-Martínez et al, 2016 ; Reyes-Corral et al, 2021 ).…”

“…Among the symbionts identified is found, their primary symbiont, “ Candidatus Carsonella rudii” ( Gammaproteobacteria ). On the other hand, a variety of secondary symbionts have been observed depending on the psyllid species, including Wolbachia ( Alphaproteobacteria : Rickettsiales ), Rickettsia ( Alphaproteobacteria : Rickettsiales ), Rickettsiella ( Gammaproteobacteria : Diplorickettsiales ), and Diplorickettsia ( Gammaproteobacteria: Diplorickettsiales ) ( Hosseinzadeh et al, 2019 ; Nakabachi, Inoue & Hirose, 2022a , 2022b ; Serbina et al, 2022 ; Martoni et al, 2023 ). Insects can act as vectors, that is, the ability of an insect to transmit pathogens.…”

Phylosymbiosis: The Eco-Evolutionary Pattern of Insect–Symbiont Interactions

“…However, the dissimilarities in symbiont communities did not correlate significantly with host genetic variation in the heteroecious aphid lineages Eriosomatinae [81] and Hormaphidinae [82]. Another study concerning phylosymbiosis in Hemiptera focused on the psyllid bacterial community, which demonstrated the greater effect of host phylogeny than host plant and geographic distribution [39].…”