Bacteriophage: A Useful Tool for Studying Gut Bacteria Function of Housefly Larvae, Musca domestica
Xinyu Zhang, Shumin Wang, Ting Li, Qian Zhang, Ruiling Zhang, Zhong Zhang
Abstract
The well-balanced gut microbiota ensures appropriate development of the host insect, such as mosquitoes, cockroaches, and flies. Various intestinal symbiotic bacteria have different influences on the host gut community structure and thus exert different effects on host health. Therefore, it is of great importance to understand the contributions of one specific bacterial symbiont to the gut microbiota community structure and insect health. Bacteriophages that target certain bacteria are effective tools that can be used to analyze gut bacterial symbionts. However, experimental evidence for phage efficacy in regulating insect intestinal bacteria has been little reported. In this study, we used phages as precision tools to regulate a bacterial community and analyzed the influence on host health after certain bacteria were inhibited by bacteriophage. The ability of phages to target intestinal-specific bacteria in housefly larvae and reduce the levels of target bacteria makes them an effective tool for studying the function of gut bacteria.