Bacterial community profile after the lethal infection of Steinernema-Xenorhabdus pairs into soil-reared Tenebrio molitor larvae

Abstract

The host microbiota may have an impact on pathogens. This is often studied in laboratory-reared hosts but rarely in individuals whose microbiota looks like that of wild animals. In this study, we modified the gut microbiota of the insect Tenebrio molitor by rearing larvae in soil sampled from the field. We showed by high throughput sequencing methods that this treatment modifies the gut microbiota so that it is more diversified than that of laboratory-reared insects, and closely resembled the one of soil-dwelling insects. To describe what the entomopathogenic bacterial symbiont Xenorhabdus (Enterobacteriaceae), vectored by the soil-dwelling nematode Steinernema, might experience in natural conditions, we studied the infestation of the soil-reared T. molitor larvae with three Steinernema-Xenorhabdus pairs. We performed the infestation at 18°C, which delays the emergence of new infective juveniles (IJs), the soil-dwelling nematode forms, but which is a temperature compatible with natural infestation. We analyzed by high throughput sequencing methods the composition of the bacterial community within the insect cadavers before the first emergences of IJs. These bacterial communities were generally characterized by one or two non-symbiont taxa. Even for highly lethal Steinernema-Xenorhabdus pairs, the symbiont does not dominate the bacterial community within the insect cadaver.

Keywords: Steinernema; Tenebrio molitor; Xenorhabdus; infection; microbiota; soil-rearing.