MOLECULAR ANALYSIS OF GUT BACTERIAL ENDOSYMBIONTS DIVERSITY IN RED PALM WEEVIL LARVAE, Rhynchophorus ferrugineus (COLEOPTERA; CURCULIONIDAE)

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Plant Protection Dept., Central Lab. for Date Palm Researches, Agric. Research Center, Giza, Egypt

2 Genetics Dept., Fac. of Agric., Ain Shams Univ., Cairo, Egypt

Abstract

Red palm weevil, Rhynchophorus ferrugineus (Oliver, 1790), Order; Coleoptera, Family; Curculionidae, is considered as the biggest threat facing date palm cultivators. The larva feed on trunk tender tissue and can cause palm death within
6-8 months after infection. Insect gut harbors a community of bacteria that lives in an endosymbiotic relationship with the insect and it is strongly evident that it plays a key role in insect life. Deciphering and identification of insect microbiota could lead to the development of new symbiotiont-based control approaches. In this work we studied the diversity of the endosymbiont bacterial community of red palm weevil larval midgut in Egypt, by using Denaturing Gradient Gel Electrophoresis (DGGE), based on 16S rRNA genes PCR amplification. We used three groups of field caught larva sampled from two different places; El-Badrashin and Agricultural Research Center (ARC) in Giza governorate, Egypt. DGGE profiling patterns has shown the relative prevalence of bacterial phylotypes  affiliated to family Firmicute; Leuconostoc lactis, Lactococcus lactis, Lactobacillus nagelli and bacterial phylotypes affiliated to family Actinobaceria; Cellulomonas cellasea, Bifidobacterium minimum, which suggest that they have a potential role in nutrition, physiology and immunomodulation of the insect.
 

Keywords

Arab Universities Journal of Agricultural Sciences
Volume 26, Special issue (2A) - Serial Number 2
Agric. Economic Nos. 61 …. 65 pp. 775 – 861
October 2018
Pages 1213-1222

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