In vivo Pyro-SIP assessing active gut microbiota of the cotton leafworm, Spodoptera littoralis.

ABSTRACT: The gut microbiota is of crucial importance for the host with considerable metabolic activity. Although great efforts have been made toward characterizing microbial diversity, measuring components' metabolic activity surprisingly hasn't kept pace. Here we combined pyrosequencing of amplified 16S rRNA genes with in vivo stable isotope probing (Pyro-SIP) to unmask metabolically active bacteria in the gut of cotton leafworm (Spodoptera littoralis), a polyphagous insect herbivore that consumes large amounts of plant material in a short time, liberating abundant glucose in the alimentary canal as a most important carbon and energy source for both host and active gut bacteria. With (13)C glucose as the trophic link, Pyro-SIP revealed that a relatively simple but distinctive gut microbiota co-dev

SUBMITTER: Shao Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3903505 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature