Characterized non-transient microbiota from stinkbug (Nezara viridula) midgut deactivates soybean chemical defenses

MEDINA, VIRGINIA; SARDOY, PEDRO M.; SORIA, MARCELO; VAY, CARLOS A.; GUTKIND, GABRIEL O.; ZAVALA, JORGE A.

PLOS ONE

PUBLIC LIBRARY SCIENCE

Año: 2018 vol. 13

1932-6203

The Southern green stinkbug (N. viridula) feeds on developing soybean seeds in spite oftheir strong defenses against herbivory, making this pest one of the most harmful to soybeancrops. To test the hypothesis that midgut bacterial community allows stinkbugs to toleratechemical defenses of soybean developing seeds, we identified and characterizedmidgut microbiota of stinkbugs collected from soybean crops, different secondary planthosts or insects at diapause on Eucalyptus trees. Our study demonstrated that while morethan 54% of N. viridula adults collected in the field had no detectable bacteria in the V1-V3midgut ventricles, the guts of the rest of stinkbugs were colonized by non-transient microbiota(NTM) and transient microbiota not present in stinkbugs at diapause. While transientmicrobiota Bacillus sp., Micrococcus sp., Streptomyces sp., Staphylococcus sp. and othershad low abundance, NTM microbiota was represented by Yokenella sp., Pantoea sp. andEnterococcus sp. isolates. We found some isolates that showed in vitro β-glucosidase andraffinase activities plus the ability to degrade isoflavonoids and deactivate soybean proteaseinhibitors. Our results suggest that the stinkbugs´ NTM microbiota may impact on nutrition,detoxification and deactivation of chemical defenses, and Enterococcus sp., Yokenella sp.and Pantoea sp. strains might help stinkbugs to feed on soybean developing seeds in spiteof its chemical defenses.