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Bacterial microbiota protect an invasive bark beetle from a pine defensive compound

Overview of attention for article published in Microbiome, July 2018
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  • In the top 25% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (81st percentile)

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1 blog
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Title
Bacterial microbiota protect an invasive bark beetle from a pine defensive compound
Published in
Microbiome, July 2018
DOI 10.1186/s40168-018-0518-0
Pubmed ID
Authors

Chihang Cheng, Jacob D Wickham, Li Chen, Dandan Xu, Min Lu, Jianghua Sun

Abstract

There is growing evidence that some devastating biotic invasions are facilitated by microbial symbionts. The red turpentine beetle (RTB), an innocuous secondary insect attacking weakened trees in North America, has formed an invasive complex with the fungus Leptographium procerum in China, and this invasive beetle-fungus symbiotic complex is capable of attacking and killing healthy pines. A previous study demonstrated that three Chinese-resident fungi, newly acquired by RTB in China, induce high levels of a phenolic defensive chemical, naringenin, in pines and this invasive beetle-fungus complex is suppressed by elevated levels of naringenin while the beetle uses its gallery as an external detoxification system in which particular yeast-like fungi and bacterial species biodegrade naringenin. However, the functional roles of key microbial players in the symbiosis, contained within the microbiome of the bark beetle gallery, have not been well elucidated. In this report, the symbiotic naringenin-degrading microbiota were found to increase RTB survivorship in the presence of induced host defenses, and potential genes associated with degradation pathways were discovered. While fungi in the gallery microbiota had little involvement in naringenin degradation, bacterial community structure within the beetle gallery was highly correlated to naringenin degrading activity. Phylotypes of the Gram-negative bacterial genus Novosphingobium, which possessed genes involved in degradation pathways, were highly correlated to naringenin degradation activities and RTB associated with an isolated species of this genus acquired protection against naringenin and gained fitness. Our results demonstrated that symbiotic bacterial community of RTB galleries enhances the survivorship and overall fitness of invasive beetles by degrading the host phenolic naringenin, ultimately overcoming the tree defenses and facilitating the success of the invasive beetle-fungi complex. This dynamic interplay between the invasive insect pest and multipartite microbes suggests a putative mechanism in invasion ecology for mitigating biotic resistance to symbiotic invasion.

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X Demographics

The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 9 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 85 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
Unknown 85 100%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Researcher 12 14%
Student > Ph. D. Student 12 14%
Student > Master 8 9%
Student > Doctoral Student 7 8%
Student > Bachelor 6 7%
Other 14 16%
Unknown 26 31%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Agricultural and Biological Sciences 31 36%
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology 10 12%
Unspecified 2 2%
Environmental Science 2 2%
Computer Science 1 1%
Other 9 11%
Unknown 30 35%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 11. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 25 January 2019.
All research outputs
#2,898,164
of 23,098,660 outputs
Outputs from Microbiome
#1,061
of 1,465 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#60,328
of 330,334 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Microbiome
#40
of 49 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 23,098,660 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done well and is in the 87th percentile: it's in the top 25% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 1,465 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 40.4. This one is in the 27th percentile – i.e., 27% of its peers scored the same or lower than it.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 330,334 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done well, scoring higher than 81% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 49 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one is in the 18th percentile – i.e., 18% of its contemporaries scored the same or lower than it.