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Gut microbiota degrades toxic isothiocyanates in a flea beetle pest
Author(s) -
Shukla Shantanu P.,
Beran Franziska
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
molecular ecology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.619
H-Index - 225
eISSN - 1365-294X
pISSN - 0962-1083
DOI - 10.1111/mec.15657
Subject(s) - pantoea , biology , pantoea agglomerans , detoxification (alternative medicine) , microbiome , flea beetle , gut flora , microbiology and biotechnology , antibiosis , botany , brassica rapa , bacteria , allyl isothiocyanate , diamondback moth , pseudomonas , brassica , biochemistry , plutella , medicine , bioinformatics , genetics , alternative medicine , pathology , lepidoptera genitalia
Microbial symbionts of herbivorous insects have been suggested to aid in the detoxification of plant defense compounds; however, quantitative studies on microbial contribution to plant toxin degradation remain scarce. Here, we demonstrate microbiome‐mediated degradation of plant‐derived toxic isothiocyanates in the cabbage stem flea beetle Psylliodes chrysocephala , a major pest of oilseed rape. Suppression of microbiota in antibiotic‐fed beetles resulted in up to 11.3‐fold higher levels of unmetabolized isothiocyanates compared to control beetles but did not affect other known detoxification pathways in P. chrysocephala . We characterized the microbiome of laboratory‐reared and field‐collected insects using 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing and isolated bacteria belonging to the three core genera Pantoea , Acinetobacter and Pseudomonas. O nly Pantoea isolates rapidly degraded isothiocyanates in vitro , and restored isothiocyanate degradation in vivo when reintroduced in antibiotic‐fed beetles. Pantoea was consistently present across beetle life stages and in field and lab populations. In addition, Pantoea was detected in undamaged tissues of the host plant Brassica rapa , indicating that P. chrysocephala could possibly acquire an isothiocyanate detoxifying bacterium through their diet. Our results demonstrate that both insect endogenous mechanisms and the microbiota can contribute to the detoxification of plant defense compounds and together they can better account for the fate of ingested plant metabolites.