Bacterial communities associated with the gut of tomato fruit borer, Helicoverpa armigera (Hubner) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) based on Illumina Next-Generation Sequencing

Helicoverpa armigera (Hubner) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae), a polyphagous agricultural pest of global importance, harbour diverse bacterial communities in its gut. We analysed the composition and diversity of gut bacteria using Illumina Next-Generation Sequencing of 16S ribosomal RNA amplicons. The data set consisted of 864,813 high-quality paired end sequences with mean length of 150 base pairs. Highly diverse bacterial communities were present in the sample containing approximately 2303 operational taxonomic units (OTUs). A total of 17 bacterial phyla, 34 classes, 84 orders, 173 families, 334 genera, and 707 species were identified from the sequence analysis. Actinobacteria was the most dominant groups, followed by Proteobacteria and Firmicutes. The search on function of different gut inhabiting bacteria of H. armigera revealed their role in nutrition, detoxification of lethal insecticide molecules, and defensive action against pathogens. Insecticidal toxin producing bacterial species were also found associated with the H. armigera gut. (C) 2016 Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of Korean Society of Applied Entomology, Taiwan Entomological Society and Malaysian Plant Protection Society.