Biodiversity of active and inactive bacteria in the gut flora of wood-feeding huhu beetle larvae (Prionoplus reticularis).

ABSTRACT: Huhu grubs (Prionoplus reticularis) are wood-feeding beetle larvae endemic to New Zealand and belonging to the family Cerambycidae. Compared to the wood-feeding lower termites, very little is known about the diversity and activity of microorganisms associated with xylophagous cerambycid larvae. To address this, we used pyrosequencing to evaluate the diversity of metabolically active and inactive bacteria in the huhu larval gut. Our estimate, that the gut harbors at least 1,800 phylotypes, is based on 33,420 sequences amplified from genomic DNA and reverse-transcribed RNA. Analysis of genomic DNA- and RNA-derived data sets revealed that 71% of all phylotypes (representing 95% of all sequences) were metabolically active. Rare phylotypes contributed considerably to the richness of the communi

SUBMITTER: Reid NM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3187079 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature