Publications

3807

The ability of ruminants to utilize cellulosic biomass is a result of the metabolic activities of symbiotic microbial communities that reside in the rumen. To gain further insight into this complex microbial ecosystem, a selection-based batch culturing approach was used to identify candidate cellulose-utilizing bacterial consortia. Prior to culturing with cellulose, rumen contents sampled from three beef cows maintained on a forage diet shared 252 Operational Taxonomic Units (OTUs), accounting for 41.6–50.0% of bacterial 16S rRNA gene sequences in their respective samples. Despite this high level of overlap, only one OTU was enriched in cellulose-supplemented cultures from all rumen samples. Otherwise, each set of replicate cellulose supplemented cultures originating from a sampled rumen environment was found to have a distinct bacterial composition. Two of the seven most enriched OTUs were closely matched to well-established rumen cellulose utilizers (Ruminococcus flavefaciens and Fibrobacter succinogenes), while the others did not show high nucleotide sequence identity to currently defined bacterial species. The latter were affiliated to Prevotella (1 OTU), Ruminococcaceae (3 OTUs), and the candidate phylum Saccharibacteria (1 OTU), respectively. While further investigations will be necessary to elucidate the metabolic function(s) of each enriched OTU, these results together further support cellulose utilization as a ruminal metabolic trait shared across vast phylogenetic distances, and that the rumen is an environment conducive to the selection of a broad range of microbial adaptations for the digestion of plant structural polysaccharides.

The bacterium ‘Candidatus Liberibacter solanacearum’ is a recent plant pathogen of several crops in Solanaceae and Apiaceae and is associated with economically important diseases. The bacterium is a carrot seed borne pathogen that can also be transmitted from potato mother tubers and by psyllid vectors. The psyllid Bactericera trigonica Hodkinson was described carrying CaLso associated with vegetative disorders in carrot and celery crops in Spain and its competence to transmit this phloem-limited bacterium among vegetables is currently being investigated. Here electrical penetration graphs showed that B. trigonica fed in the phloem of carrot and celery and probed the phloem in potato, but not in tomato plants. The bacterium was efficiently transmitted to carrot and celery plants when either single B. trigonica or groups of ten fed on these species. An inoculation access period of 24 hours was sufficient for a single B. trigonica to transmit the bacterium to carrot (67.8%), celery (21.1%) and eventually to potato and tomato (6.0%). Higher transmission rates were obtained with 10 individuals on celery (100%), carrot (80%), potato (10%) and tomato (10%). Bactericera trigonica laid eggs, and the hatched nymphs develop into adult on carrot and celery, but not on potato and tomato. CaLso was detected in 20% of the eggs laid by females carrying the bacterium. The results confirmed that B. trigonica is a vector of the bacterium to carrot and celery, and it is discussed the potential role of this psyllid in the transmission of the pathogen to potato and tomato plants.