Gut Microbiota Cannot Compensate the Impact of (quasi) Aposymbiosis in Blattella germanica.

ABSTRACT: Blattella germanica presents a very complex symbiotic system, involving the following two kinds of symbionts: the endosymbiont Blattabacterium and the gut microbiota. Although the role of the endosymbiont has been fully elucidated, the function of the gut microbiota remains unclear. The study of the gut microbiota will benefit from the availability of insects deprived of Blattabacterium. Our goal is to determine the effect of the removal (or, at least, the reduction) of the endosymbiont population on the cockroach's fitness, in a normal gut microbiota community. For this purpose, we treated our cockroach population, over several generations, with rifampicin, an antibiotic that only affects the endosymbiont during its extracellular phase, and decreases its amount in the following generation

SUBMITTER: Munoz-Benavent M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8533614 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature