Characterization of 16S rRNA Metagenomic Amplicon Data of Bacterial Communities Associated with IGR Treated Tropical Bed Bugs, Cimex hemipterus (F.) (Hemiptera) (Early View)

Abstract

Endosymbiont serves crucial physiological functions within their insect hosts, including nutrition provision, metabolic enhancement, and detoxification stimulation. The exploration of the microbiome population makeup corresponding to tropical bed bugs (Cimex hemipterus) became feasible with the advancement of novel metagenomic approaches. This study examined the microbial composition of tropical bed bugs treated with four different classes of insecticides: chlorfluazuron, tebufenozide, pyriproxyfen, β-cyfluthrin + imidacloprid, and control. Next, MiSeq Illumina was used to sequence the hypervariable section (v3-v4) of the 16S rRNA gene region. Proteobacteria accounted for over 99% of the overall microbial population in all samples. The two most common OTUs at the genus level were Wolbachia, an alpha-proteobacterium, and Pectobacterium, a gamma-proteobacterium. Despite some similarities in the major OTUs of the bacteria, the genera represented in the lower abundances were quite diverse. The bacterial abundance of bed bugs treated with pyriproxyfen exhibited a notable disparity from the control sample. This research lays the groundwork for a previously unknown symbiont-mediated mechanism influencing insecticide susceptibility in bed bugs.