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Sex Biased Variance in the Structural and Functional Diversity of the Midgut Bacterial Community of Last Instar Larvae of Pectinophora gossypiella (Lepidoptera: Gelechiidae)

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Abstract

Elucidating the midgut bacterial diversity in an important cotton bollworm Pectinophora gossypiella can be a stepping stone in understanding the possible role of midgut bacteria in field evolved resistance against Bt cotton as well as to commonly used insecticides. Present study targeted metagenomics of 16S rRNA V3-V4 region to understand the influence of sex, if exists, in community diversity of gut microbes vis a vis their function in pink bollworm larvae. The results of the present study revealed that Proteobacteria, Firmicutes, and Actinobacteria were the predominant phyla in the midgut of pink bollworm. Distinctive differences were found in the Shannon and Simpson diversity indices, ChaoI and ACE richness estimates in male and female larvae. The alpha diversity analysis showed that the gut bacteria of male were diverse and rich as compared to that of female. Further, beta diversity analysis indicated that the gut bacterial communities of both larval groups were unique from each other. These findings are the maiden report on sex-based variation in gut bacteria in P. gossypiella larvae. Role of candidate phyla OD1 (Parcubacteria) and TM7 (Saccharibacteria) in the living organisms needs to be studied, and their fairly significant composition in male and negligible composition in female larva raises question on their obvious role. Taxonomic to phenotypic mapping revealed that these gut bacteria play vital role in many metabolic and physiological activities of pink bollworm. Difference in potential functions of gut bacteria also varied with the sex.

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The original contributions presented in the study are included in the article/Supplementary Information; further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding author.

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Acknowledgements

CHS is grateful to the Post Graduate School and Director, Indian Agricultural Research Institute (New Delhi), for providing fellowship to carry out the Ph.D. programme. The authors are grateful to the Director, Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, for providing the necessary infrastructure and facilities.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Entomology, Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, India

    H. S. Chaitra & Vinay K. Kalia

  2. ICAR-Central Soil Salinity Research Institute, RRS, Lucknow, India

    Arjun Singh

  3. ICAR-National Bureau of Agriculturally Important Microorganisms, Kushmaur, Mau, India

    Arjun Singh & Kuppusamy Pandiyan

  4. Ginning Training Centre, ICAR-Central Institute for Research on Cotton Technology, Nagpur, India

    Kuppusamy Pandiyan

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  1. H. S. Chaitra
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  2. Arjun Singh
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  4. Vinay K. Kalia
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Contributions

CHS and VKK designed the project, CHS performed the experiment, PK and AS analyzed the data and interpreted the results. CHS and VKK wrote the manuscript with contributions from PK and AS. All the authors critically read and approved the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Vinay K. Kalia.

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Chaitra, H.S., Singh, A., Pandiyan, K. et al. Sex Biased Variance in the Structural and Functional Diversity of the Midgut Bacterial Community of Last Instar Larvae of Pectinophora gossypiella (Lepidoptera: Gelechiidae). Microb Ecol 83, 1112–1122 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00248-021-01829-1

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