Win by Quantity: a Striking Rickettsia-Bias Symbiont Community Revealed by Seasonal Tracking in the Whitefly Bemisia tabaci

Abstract

Molecular Detection of Endosymbionts in Phlebotomines and Temperature Preference Estimation and Its Relation with Microbiota with Emphasis onLutzomyia longipalpisDue to climate change, there is an increase in tropical diseases such as leishmaniasis, transmitted by some species of the genus Lutzomyia, as Lutzomyia longipalpis, vector of Leishmania infantum in America. In addition, the microbiota of insects is known to play a role in their immunity, directly impacting their vector competence to transmit pathogens.This justifies the need to explore the composition of the microbiota, the presence of endosymbionts and their potential relationship with temperature variations in Lu.longipalpis. For this reason, the molecular detection of Arsenophonus was conducted in populations of wild phlebotomines of Lu. longipalpis, Pintomyia evansi and Psychodopygus panamensis from Colombia. Subsequently, with a device with temperature gradient "MB-Thermocline", it was evaluated the temperature preference of Lu. longipalpis, Pi. evansi while populations of Aedes aegypti were used as a control in the assay. The PCR results showed the presence of Arsenophonus and interspecific differences (p-value < 0.05) were observed between phlebotomines, specifically between 25 °C and 31 °C where there was a greater abundance of Pi. evansi found in such compartments, however both species showed a marked preference towards the temperature of 21-23 °C, while Ae. aegypti prefered temperatures between 27-29 °C.Representative groups of Lu. longipalpis that presented temperature preference (phenotypes) in each compartment of the device, were used to perform an analysis of the microbiota using New Generation Sequencing techniques. The analysis of the microbiota of these groups shows that the communities have a significantly different taxonomic structure between temperature ranges (p-value < 0.013), the most abundant genera were

Abundance and Localization of Symbiotic Bacterial Communities in the Fly Parasitoid Spalangia cameroni

“…The Rickettsia in S. cameroni is closely related to the pathogenic species R. felis ( 16 ), providing a possible explanation to the high titers and the pervasive tissue tropism of this symbiont, resembling the tissue tropism of R. felis in the cat flea ( 39 ). A similar pattern of a Rickettsia -dominated community was recently found also in whiteflies ( 40 ). Interestingly, Rickettsia levels in whiteflies are positively correlated with the levels of vitellogenin ( 41 ), highlighting another determinant of symbionts’ titers.…”

A perspective on insect–microbe holobionts facing thermal fluctuations in a climate‐change context

“…A number of studies have examined seasonal changes in the microbiome of different insect models, including bees, crickets, aphids, whiteflies and butterflies (Fig. 1) (Ferguson et al, 2018;Liu et al, 2019;Kešnerov a et al, 2020;Zhao et al, 2021). For example, Kešnerov a et al (2020) recently demonstrated that the gut microbial community of bees radically differs between winter and summer morphs, both in terms of abundance and diversity.…”

“…number and relative abundance of species and strains, patterns of gene expression). There is ample experimental support showing that the composition of insect microbiota is dynamic and influenced by temperatures varying during a brief bout of thermal stress (Jaramillo and Castañeda, 2021), over one or several developmental stages (Moghadam et al, 2018), and even across seasons and generations (Ayyasamy et al, 2021;Zhao et al, 2021).…”

“…number and relative abundance of species and strains, patterns of gene expression). There is ample experimental support showing that the composition of insect microbiota is dynamic and influenced by temperatures varying during a brief bout of thermal stress (Jaramillo and Castañeda, 2021), over one or several developmental stages (Moghadam et al ., 2018), and even across seasons and generations (Ayyasamy et al ., 2021; Zhao et al ., 2021). While these examples conclusively demonstrate that insect microbiome is flexible and responsive to temperature dynamics, the significance of these temperature‐driven modifications of microbial communities for holobiont fitness remains to be ascertained (e.g.…”

Impact of heat stress on the fitness outcomes of symbiotic infection in aphids: a meta-analysis

“…Because they affect host performance as a function of temperature and the microbes themselves are sensitive to thermal variability, symbiotic associations can vary both temporally and spatially in prevalence, occurrence or strain type in many species such as honeybees, whiteflies, damselflies or aphids [15,36,37]. These different lines of evidence raise a concern about the short- and long-term maintenance of symbiotic associations enduring changing thermal conditions, such as increased mean temperature and frequency of heat events forecast under climate change [38].…”