Symbiotic bacterial network structure involved in carbon and nitrogen metabolism of wood-utilizing insect larvae

TL;DR

This study investigates the symbiotic bacterial networks in beetle larvae intestines that facilitate the metabolism of carbon and nitrogen from wood biomass, revealing complex bacterial interactions and potential environmental benefits.

Contribution

It provides a novel analysis of bacterial community structure and metabolic interactions in insect larvae, highlighting the importance of bacterial groups over individual species.

Findings

Bacterial enrichment in larvae intestines suggests selective adaptation.

Metabolic interactions are influenced by bacterial community composition.

Structural modeling links bacterial groups to carbon and nitrogen metabolism.

Abstract

Effective biological utilization of wood biomass is necessary worldwide. Since several insect larvae can use wood biomass as a nutrient source, studies on their digestive mechanism are expected to speculate a novel rule in wood biomass processing. Here, the relationships of inhabitant bacteria involved in carbon and nitrogen metabolism in the intestine of beetle larvae, an insect model, are investigated. Bacterial analysis of larval feces showed enrichment of members of which could include candidates for plant growth promotion, nitrogen cycle modulation, and/or environmental protection. The abundances of these bacteria were not necessarily positively correlated with the abundance in the habitat, suggesting that they might be selectively enriched in the intestines of larvae. Further association analysis predicted that carbon and nitrogen metabolism in the intestine was affected by the presence of the other common bacteria, the populations of which were not remarkably altered in the habitat and feces. Based on hypotheses targeting these selected bacterial groups, structural estimation modeling analyses statistically suggested that their metabolism of carbon and nitrogen and their stable isotopes, {\delta}13C and {\delta}15N, may be associated with fecal enriched bacteria and other common bacteria. In addition, other causal inference analyses, such as causal mediation analysis, linear non-Gaussian acyclic model (LiNGAM), and BayesLiNGAM, did not necessarily affirm the existence of prominent bacteria involved in metabolism, implying its importance as the bacterial groups for metabolism rather than a remarkable bacterium. Thus, these observations highlight a multifaceted view of symbiotic bacterial groups utilizing carbon and nitrogen from wood biomass in insect larvae as a cultivator of potentially environmentally beneficial bacteria.