Microbiome variation correlates with the insecticide susceptibility in different geographic strains of a significant agricultural pest, Nilaparvata lugens

• Published in: NPJ biofilms and microbiomes Vol. 9; no. 1; pp. 2 - 8
• Main Authors: Zhang, Yunhua, Cai, Tingwei, Yuan, Maojun, Li, Zhao, Jin, Ruoheng, Ren, Zhijie, Qin, Yao, Yu, Chang, Cai, Yongfeng, Shu, Runhang, He, Shun, Li, Jianhong, Wong, Adam C. N., Wan, Hu
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 12-01-2023; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 631/326/2565/2134; 631/326/2565/855; Animals; Bacteria - genetics; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Environmental factors; Genotypes; Hemiptera; Insecticide Resistance - genetics; Insecticides; Insecticides - pharmacology; Life Sciences; Medical Microbiology; Microbial Ecology; Microbial Genetics and Genomics; Microbiology; Microbiomes; Microbiota; Nilaparvata lugens; Pesticide resistance; Pests; Phenotypes; Strains (organisms); Susceptibility; Symbionts; Transcriptomes
• ISSN: 2055-5008; 2055-5008
• DOI: 10.1038/s41522-023-00369-5

Microbiome-mediated insecticide resistance is an emerging phenomenon found in insect pests. However, microbiome composition can vary by host genotype and environmental factors, but how these variations may be associated with insecticide resistance phenotype remains unclear. In this study, we compared different field and laboratory strains of the brown planthopper
Nilaparvata lugens
in their microbiome composition, transcriptome, and insecticide resistance profiles to identify possible patterns of correlation. Our analysis reveals that the abundances of core bacterial symbionts are significantly correlated with the expression of several host detoxifying genes (especially
NlCYP6ER1
, a key gene previously shown involved in insecticides resistance). The expression levels of these detoxifying genes correlated with
N. lugens
insecticide susceptibility. Furthermore, we have identified several environmental abiotic factors, including temperature, precipitation, latitude, and longitude, as potential predictors of symbiont abundances associated with expression of key detoxifying genes, and correlated with insecticide susceptibility levels of
N. lugens
. These findings provide new insights into how microbiome-environment-host interactions may influence insecticide susceptibility, which will be helpful in guiding targeted microbial-based strategies for insecticide resistance management in the field.