Endosymbiont and gut bacterial communities of the brown-banded cockroach, Supella longipalpa

The brown-banded cockroach (Supella longipalpa) is a widespread nuisance and public health pest. Like the German cockroach (Blattella germanica), this species is adapted to the indoor biome and completes the entirety of its life cycle in human-built structures. Recently, understanding the contributi...

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Main Authors: Kylene Guse, Jose E. Pietri
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: PeerJ Inc. 2024-03-01
Series:PeerJ
Subjects:
Online Access:https://peerj.com/articles/17095.pdf
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author Kylene Guse
Jose E. Pietri
author_facet Kylene Guse
Jose E. Pietri
author_sort Kylene Guse
collection DOAJ
description The brown-banded cockroach (Supella longipalpa) is a widespread nuisance and public health pest. Like the German cockroach (Blattella germanica), this species is adapted to the indoor biome and completes the entirety of its life cycle in human-built structures. Recently, understanding the contributions of commensal and symbiotic microbes to the biology of cockroach pests, as well as the applications of targeting these microbes for pest control, have garnered significant scientific interest. However, relative to B. germanica, the biology of S. longipalpa, including its microbial associations, is understudied. Therefore, the goal of the present study was to quantitatively examine and characterize both the endosymbiont and gut bacterial communities of S. longipalpa for the first time. To do so, bacterial 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing was conducted on DNA extracts from whole adult females and males, early instar nymphs, and late instar nymphs. The results demonstrate that the gut microbiome is dominated by two genera of bacteria known to have beneficial probiotic effects in other organisms, namely Lactobacillus and Akkermansia. Furthermore, our data show a significant effect of nymphal development on diversity and variation in the gut microbiome. Lastly, we reveal significant negative correlations between the two intracellular endosymbionts, Blattabacterium and Wolbachia, as well as between Blattabacterium and the gut microbiome, suggesting that Blattabacterium endosymbionts could directly or indirectly influence the composition of other bacterial populations. These findings have implications for understanding the adaptation of S. longipalpa to the indoor biome, its divergence from other indoor cockroach pest species such as B. germanica, the development of novel control approaches that target the microbiome, and fundamental insect-microbe interactions more broadly.
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spelling doaj.art-86606ae94466425caa603d1a4bc5c2922024-03-21T15:05:11ZengPeerJ Inc.PeerJ2167-83592024-03-0112e1709510.7717/peerj.17095Endosymbiont and gut bacterial communities of the brown-banded cockroach, Supella longipalpaKylene GuseJose E. PietriThe brown-banded cockroach (Supella longipalpa) is a widespread nuisance and public health pest. Like the German cockroach (Blattella germanica), this species is adapted to the indoor biome and completes the entirety of its life cycle in human-built structures. Recently, understanding the contributions of commensal and symbiotic microbes to the biology of cockroach pests, as well as the applications of targeting these microbes for pest control, have garnered significant scientific interest. However, relative to B. germanica, the biology of S. longipalpa, including its microbial associations, is understudied. Therefore, the goal of the present study was to quantitatively examine and characterize both the endosymbiont and gut bacterial communities of S. longipalpa for the first time. To do so, bacterial 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing was conducted on DNA extracts from whole adult females and males, early instar nymphs, and late instar nymphs. The results demonstrate that the gut microbiome is dominated by two genera of bacteria known to have beneficial probiotic effects in other organisms, namely Lactobacillus and Akkermansia. Furthermore, our data show a significant effect of nymphal development on diversity and variation in the gut microbiome. Lastly, we reveal significant negative correlations between the two intracellular endosymbionts, Blattabacterium and Wolbachia, as well as between Blattabacterium and the gut microbiome, suggesting that Blattabacterium endosymbionts could directly or indirectly influence the composition of other bacterial populations. These findings have implications for understanding the adaptation of S. longipalpa to the indoor biome, its divergence from other indoor cockroach pest species such as B. germanica, the development of novel control approaches that target the microbiome, and fundamental insect-microbe interactions more broadly.https://peerj.com/articles/17095.pdfBrown-banded cockroachSupella longipalpaMicrobiomeMicrobiota16SEndosymbiont
spellingShingle Kylene Guse
Jose E. Pietri
Endosymbiont and gut bacterial communities of the brown-banded cockroach, Supella longipalpa
PeerJ
Brown-banded cockroach
Supella longipalpa
Microbiome
Microbiota
16S
Endosymbiont
title Endosymbiont and gut bacterial communities of the brown-banded cockroach, Supella longipalpa
title_full Endosymbiont and gut bacterial communities of the brown-banded cockroach, Supella longipalpa
title_fullStr Endosymbiont and gut bacterial communities of the brown-banded cockroach, Supella longipalpa
title_full_unstemmed Endosymbiont and gut bacterial communities of the brown-banded cockroach, Supella longipalpa
title_short Endosymbiont and gut bacterial communities of the brown-banded cockroach, Supella longipalpa
title_sort endosymbiont and gut bacterial communities of the brown banded cockroach supella longipalpa
topic Brown-banded cockroach
Supella longipalpa
Microbiome
Microbiota
16S
Endosymbiont
url https://peerj.com/articles/17095.pdf
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