TY - JOUR
AU1 - Ayayee, Paul A.
AU2 - Larsen, Thomas
AU3 - Rosa, Cristina
AU4 - Felton, Gary W.
AU5 - Ferry, James G.
AU6 - Hoover, Kelli
AB - AbstractInsects are unable to synthesize essential amino acids (EAAs) de novo, thus rely on dietary or symbiotic sources for them. Wood is a poor resource of nitrogen in general, and EAAs in particular. In this study, we investigated whether gut microbiota of the Asian longhorned beetle, Anoplophora glabripennis (Motschulsky), a cerambycid that feeds in the heartwood of healthy host trees, serve as sources of EAAs to their host under different dietary conditions. δ13C-stable isotope analyses revealed significant δ13C-enrichment (3.4 ± 0.1‰; mean ± SEM) across five EAAs in wood-fed larvae relative to their woody diet. δ13C values for the consumers greater than 1‰ indicate significant contributions from non-dietary EAA sources (symbionts in this case). In contrast, δ13C-enrichment of artificial diet-fed larvae (controls) relative to their food source was markedly less (1.7 ± 0.1‰) than was observed in wood-fed larvae, yet still exceeded the threshold of 1‰. A predictive model based on δ13CEAAsignatures of five EAAs from representative bacterial, fungal, and plant samples identified symbiotic bacteria and fungi as the likely supplementary sources of EAA in wood-fed larvae. Using the same model, but with an artificial diet as the dietary source, we identified minor supplementary bacterial sources of EAA in artificial diet-fed larvae. This study highlights how microbes associated with A. glabripenniscan serve as a source of EAAs when fed on nutrient-limited diets, potentially circumventing the dietary limitations of feeding on woody substrates.
TI - Essential Amino Acid Supplementation by Gut Microbes of a Wood-Feeding Cerambycid
JF - Environmental Entomology
DO - 10.1093/ee/nvv153
DA - 2016-02-01
UR - https://www.deepdyve.com/lp/oxford-university-press/essential-amino-acid-supplementation-by-gut-microbes-of-a-wood-feeding-EI8LSLggRS
SP - 66
EP - 73
VL - 45
IS - 1
DP - DeepDyve
ER -