Cultivable Gut Bacteria of Scarabs (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae) Inhibit Bacillus thuringiensis Multiplication

The entomopathogen Bacillus thuringiensis is used to control various pest species of scarab beetle but is not particularly effective. Gut bacteria have diverse ecological and evolutionary effects on their hosts, but whether gut bacteria can protect scarabs from B. thuringiensis infection remains poo...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Environmental entomology 2014-06, Vol.43 (3), p.612-616
Main Authors: Shan, Yueming, Shu, Changlong, Crickmore, Neil, Liu, Chunqin, Xiang, Wensheng, Song, Fuping, Zhang, Jie
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Actinobacteria
Anomala
Bacillus thuringiensis
Coleoptera
Firmicutes
Holotrichia
Proteobacteria
Scarabaeidae
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The entomopathogen Bacillus thuringiensis is used to control various pest species of scarab beetle but is not particularly effective. Gut bacteria have diverse ecological and evolutionary effects on their hosts, but whether gut bacteria can protect scarabs from B. thuringiensis infection remains poorly understood. To investigate this, we isolated 32 cultivable gut bacteria from Holotrichia oblita Faldermann, Holotrichia parallela Motschulsky, and Anomala corpulenta Motschulsky, and analyzed their effect on B. thuringiensis multiplication and Cry toxin stability. 16S rDNA analysis indicated that these gut bacteria belong to the Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, Firmicutes, and Bacteroidetes phyla. A confrontation culture analyses of the 32 isolates against three scarab-specific B. thuringiensis strains showed that the majority of the scarab gut bacteria had antibacterial activity against the B. thuringiensis strains. The Cry toxin stability analysis results showed that while several strains produced proteases capable of processing the scarab-specific toxin Cry8Ea, none were able to completely degrade it. These results suggest that gut bacteria can potentially affect the susceptibility of scarabs to B. thuringiensis and that this should be considered when considering future control measures.
ISSN:0046-225X
DOI:10.1603/EC13194