Core Mycobiome and Their Ecological Relevance in the Gut of Five Ips Bark Beetles (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Scolytinae).

ABSTRACT: Bark beetles are destructive forest pests considering their remarkable contribution to forest depletion. Their association with fungi is useful against the challenges of survival on the noxious and nutritionally limited substrate, i.e., conifer tissues. Fungal symbionts help the beetles in nutrient acquisition and detoxification of toxic tree secondary metabolites. Although gut is the prime location for food digestion and detoxification, limited information is available on gut-mycobiome of bark beetles. The present study screened the gut-mycobiont from six bark beetles (five Ips and one non-Ips) from Scolytinae subfamily using high-throughput sequencing and explored their putative role in symbiosis with the host insect. Results revealed the predominance of four fungal classes

SUBMITTER: Chakraborty A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7496905 | biostudies-literature | 2020

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature