Essential Amino Acid Supplementation by Gut Microbes of a Wood-Feeding Cerambycid.

ABSTRACT: Insects 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. δ(13)C-stable isotope analyses revealed significant δ(13)C-enrichment (3.4 ± 0.1‰; mean ± SEM) across five EAAs in wood-fed larvae relative to their woody diet. δ(13)C values for the consumers greater than 1‰ indicate significant contributions from non-dietary EAA sources (symbionts in this case). In contrast, δ(13)C-enrichment of artific

SUBMITTER: Ayayee PA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6283015 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature