engleski

Microbiota plays a role in oral immune priming in Tribolium castaneum

Animals are inhabited by a diverse community of microorganisms. The relevance of such microbiota is increasingly being recognised in a broad spectrum of species, ranging from sponges to primates, revealing various beneficial roles microbes can play. The red flour beetle Tribolium castaneum represents a well-established experimental model organism for studying questions in ecology and evolution, however, the relevance of its microbial community is still largely unknown. T. castaneum larvae orally exposed to inactivated bacterial components of the entomopathogen Bacillus thuringiensis tenebrionis showed increased survival upon a subsequent challenge with this bacterium. We explored the role of microbiota for oral immune priming in this species. To investigate whether T. castaneum microbiota plays a role in this phenomenon, we established a protocol for raising germ-free larvae and subsequently tested whether they differ in their ability to mount such a priming response. Here we demonstrate that larvae, which lack their microbiota, show decreased survival upon secondary challenge with bacterial spores, compared to animals which still had, or were allowed to regain their microbiota before priming. Although the exact mechanism of oral immune priming is still unclear, we here suggest that the microbiota plays a crucial role in oral immune priming in this species.

microbiota, oral immune priming, Tribolium castaneum

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