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Cellulolytic activity of gut bacteria isolated from the eri silkworm larvae, Samia ricini, (Lepidoptera: Saturniidae)

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Abstract

The eri silkworm, Samia ricini, is associated with symbiotic bacteria believed to be playing several physiological functions to the host. The larvae of S. ricini were subjected to isolation of gut bacteria using culture-dependent 16S rRNA gene amplification and sequencing; and qualitative and quantitative enzymatic assays. The results of qualitative cellulolytic assays indicated that 58% of the screened gut bacterial isolates had cellulolytic activity. The cellulolytic bacterial isolates belonged to Bacillus sp. (88%), Pseudomonas sp. (8%) and Enterococcus sp. (4%). Quantitative assays indicated that the highest β-glucosidase (13.42 U/mg), endoglucanase (3.60 U/mg) and exoglucanase (2.60 U/mg) activity were in isolates ERI011, ERI009 and ERI097, respectively. Our results further indicate that significant activities of endogenous cellulases are present in the gut fluids of S. ricini. However, a comparative analysis of the cellulolytic activity showed that the endoglucanase activity of bacterial origin was 13 and 18-fold higher in the foregut and midgut, respectively, than that in gut fluids. Similarly, the β-glucosidase activity was 20 and ninefold higher compared with gut fluids from the same compartments. The higher cellulolytic activity of bacterial origin compared with that of insect origin suggests that more cellulose digestion may be aided by cellulases of bacterial origin. These cellulolytic gut bacterial isolates may be good sources for profiling novel genes and biomolecules for biotechnological application.

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Acknowledgment

The authors gratefully acknowledge the help and support given by the Indian Council for Agricultural Research-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi and National Agricultural Higher Education Project-Center for Advancement in Agriculture, Science and Technology programme of Indian Council of Agricultural Research, New Delhi and Indian Council for Cultural Relations, Government of India for their support for this research programme. Special thanks should go to members of the Insect Molecular Genetics and Microbial Genetics laboratories of the Division of Entomology and Division of Microbiology, ICAR-IARI, for their assistance.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Entomology, ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, 110012, India

    Kondwani MsangoSoko, Kirti Sharma & Sabtharishi Subramanian

  2. ICAR-National Institute for Plant Biotechnology, New Delhi, 110012, India

    Ramcharan Bhattacharya

  3. Division of Microbiology, ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, 110012, India

    Balasubramanian Ramakrishnan

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  1. Kondwani MsangoSoko
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  2. Ramcharan Bhattacharya
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  3. Balasubramanian Ramakrishnan
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  4. Kirti Sharma
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  5. Sabtharishi Subramanian
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Contributions

Kondwani MsangoSoko conducted the experiments, analyzed the data and wrote the manuscript; Ramcharan Bhattacharya, Barasubramanian Ramakrishnan and Kirti Sharma imputed into the project idea and its execution; Sabtharishi Subramanian conceived the project and helped with writing and proofreading the manuscript. All authors reviewed the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Sabtharishi Subramanian.

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The authors declare no conflict of interest, involvement, financial or otherwise, that may potentially bias our work.

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MsangoSoko, K., Bhattacharya, R., Ramakrishnan, B. et al. Cellulolytic activity of gut bacteria isolated from the eri silkworm larvae, Samia ricini, (Lepidoptera: Saturniidae). Int J Trop Insect Sci 41, 2785–2794 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42690-021-00459-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s42690-021-00459-x

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