Antifungal Streptomyces spp., Plausible Partners for Brood-Caring of the Dung Beetle Copris tripartitus.

ABSTRACT: The dung beetle Copris tripartitus Waterhouse (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae) is a coprophagous insect that lives in and feeds primarily on the feces of mammalian herbivores and is known to protect their offspring from the pathogen-rich environment by performing parental care for brood balls. Brood balls under continuous management by dung beetle are rarely contaminated by entomopathogenic fungi compared to abandoned brood balls. On the supposition that dung beetles may benefit from mutualistic bacteria that protect their offspring against fungal pathogens, we evaluated the antifungal activities of bacteria isolated from the dung beetle and brood ball. As a result, bacterial isolates, mainly streptomycetes, manifested potent and broad-spectrum antifungal activity against various fungi, i

SUBMITTER: Kim SH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8466457 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature