Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus: An important factor affecting bacterial community composition and Wolbachia titers in Asian citrus psyllid

Endosymbionts play crucial roles in various physiological activities within insect hosts. The Asian citrus psyllid (ACP), Kuwayama, is an important vector for Liberibacter asiaticus ( Las), a fatal pathogenic bacterial agent causing the disease Huanglongbing in the citrus industry. This study combines high-throughput sequencing of 16S ribosomal RNA amplicons to explore how Las affects the bacterial community in different color morphs (blue, gray), genders, and tissues (cuticle, gut, mycetome, Malpighian tubule, ovary, and testis) of ACP. We found that there was no significant differences in the bacterial community diversity and Las acquired ratio between the different color morphs and genders of ACP adults. However, acquiring Las could promote the adult bacterial community's diversity and richness more than in the uninfected condition. The presence of Las could increase the and unclassified_ proportions more than in the uninfected condition. The bacterial community diversity in the Las infected tissues of ovary and cuticle, was lower than the uninfected condition, but the richness of all tissues was not different between the infected and uninfected conditions. Las could also change the bacterial structure in different tissues and make the bacterial relationship network simpler than it is in an uninfected condition. Furthermore, we used quantitative real-time PCR to assess the dynamic changes of in Las uninfected and infected color morphs and tissues of ACP. The results showed that titers were significantly higher in Las infected adults than in uninfected adults. In different tissues, the titers in the testis, ovary, and Malpighian tubule were higher than their uninfected counterparts. Our results provide essential knowledge for understanding the symbionts of the ACP and how Las affects the bacterial community of the ACP.