Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 May 19;13(5):474.
doi: 10.3390/insects13050474.

Bacterial Symbionts in Ceratitis capitata

Alessia Cappelli  1 , Dezemona Petrelli  2 , Giuliano Gasperi  3 , Aurelio Giuseppe Maria Serrao  1 , Irene Ricci  1 , Claudia Damiani  1 , Guido Favia  1
Affiliations

Bacterial Symbionts in Ceratitis capitata

Alessia Cappelli et al. Insects. .

Abstract

Ceratitis capitata (Diptera: Tephritidae) is responsible for extensive damage in agriculture with important economic losses. Several strategies have been proposed to control this insect pest including insecticides and the Sterile Insect Technique. Traditional control methods should be implemented by innovative tools, among which those based on insect symbionts seem very promising. Our study aimed to investigate, through the 16S Miseq analysis, the microbial communities associated with selected organs in three different medfly populations to identify possible candidates to develop symbiont-based control approaches. Our results confirm that Klebsiella and Providencia are the dominant bacteria in guts, while a more diversified microbial community has been detected in reproductive organs. Concertedly, we revealed for the first time the presence of Chroococcidiopsis and Propionibacterium as stable components of the medfly's microbiota. Additionally, in the reproductive organs, we detected Asaia, a bacterium already proposed as a tool in the Symbiotic Control of Vector-Borne Diseases. A strain of Asaia, genetically modified to produce a green fluorescent protein, was used to ascertain the ability of Asaia to colonize specific organs of C. capitata. Our study lays the foundation for the development of control methods for C. capitata based on the use of symbiont bacteria.

Keywords: Asaia; Ceratitis capitata; Symbiotic Control.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Phylum level composition (% of OTUs) in different organs of three different populations of C. capitata. Only OTUs representing >1% of the total reads are represented. RO: reproductive organs; F: females; M: males.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Genus level composition (% of OTUs) in different organs of C. capitata. Only OTUs representing >1% of the total reads are represented. RO: reproductive organs; M: male; F: female.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Asaia strains from C. capitata. Asaia isolates from the (A) Guatemala strain, (B) La réunion strain and (C) ISPRA strain. Asaia strains genetically modified to express a green fluorescent protein (GFP): (D) Guatemala strain, (E) La Réunion strain and (F) ISPRA strain. Bar = 10 µm.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Asaia-GFP detection in C. capitata organs. (A) Gut colonized with Asaia-GFP; in the red box, a magnification of a gut portion with green bacteria (bar 50µm). (B) Phase-contrast image, (C) Gut from C. capitata fed on a standard diet (without Asaia). (D) Phase-contrast image.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. White I.M., Elson-Harris M.M. Fruit Flies of Economic Significance: Their Identification and Bionomics. CABI Publishing; Wallingford, UK: 1992.
    1. Malacrida A.R., Gomulski L.M., Bonizzoni M., Bertin S., Gasperi G., Guglielmino C.R. Globalization and fruitfly invasion and expansion: The medfly paradigm. Genetica. 2007;131:1–9. doi: 10.1007/s10709-006-9117-2. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Plá I., García de Oteyza J., Tur C., Martínez M., Laurín M.C., Alonso E., Martínez M., Martín Á., Sanchis R., Navarro M.C., et al. Sterile Insect Technique Programme against Mediterranean Fruit Fly in the Valencian Community (Spain) Insects. 2021;12:415. doi: 10.3390/insects12050415. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Vreysen M.J.B., Abd-Alla A.M.M., Bourtzis K., Bouyer J., Caceres C., de Beer C., Oliveira Carvalho D., Maiga H., Mamai W., Nikolouli K., et al. The Insect Pest Control Laboratory of the Joint FAO/IAEA Programme: Ten Years (2010–2020) of Research and Development, Achievements and Challenges in Support of the Sterile Insect Technique. Insects. 2021;12:346. doi: 10.3390/insects12040346. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Utarini A., Indriani C., Ahmad R.A., Tantowijoyo W., Arguni E., Ansari M.R., Supriyati E., Wardana D.S., Meitika Y., Ernesia I., et al. Efficacy of Wolbachia-Infected Mosquito Deployments for the Control of Dengue. N. Engl. J. Med. 2021;384:2177–2186. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa2030243. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources