From eggs to guts: Symbiotic association of Sodalis nezarae sp. nov. with the Southern green shield bug Nezara viridula

Magda A. Rogowska-van der Molen; Alejandro Manzano-Marin; Jelle L. Postma; Silvia Coolen; Theo van Alen; Robert S. Jansen; Cornelia U. Welte

doi:10.1093/femsec/fiaf017

From eggs to guts: Symbiotic association of Sodalis nezarae sp. nov. with the Southern green shield bug Nezara viridula

Magda A. Rogowska-van der Molen^*, Alejandro Manzano-Marin, Jelle L. Postma, Silvia Coolen, Theo van Alen, Robert S. Jansen, Cornelia U. Welte^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

Abstract

Phytophagous insects engage in symbiotic relationships with bacteria that contribute to digestion, nutrient supplementation, and development of the host. The analysis of shield bug microbiomes has been mainly focused on the gut intestinal tract predominantly colonized by Pantoea symbionts and other microbial community members in the gut or other organs have hardly been investigated. In this study, we reveal that the Southern green shield bug Nezara viridula harbours a Sodalis symbiont in several organs, with a notable prevalence in salivary glands, and anterior regions of the midgut. Removing external egg microbiota via sterilization profoundly impacted insect viability but did not disrupt the vertical transmission of Sodalis and Pantoea symbionts. Based on the dominance of Sodalis in testes, we deduce that N. viridula males could be involved in symbiont vertical transmission. Genomic analyses comparing Sodalis species revealed that Sodalis sp. Nvir shares characteristics with both free-living and obligate insect-associated Sodalis spp. Sodalis sp. Nvir also displays genome instability typical of endosymbiont lineages, which suggests ongoing speciation to an obligate endosymbiont. Together, our study reveals that shield bugs harbour unrecognized symbionts that might be paternally transmitted.

Original language	English
Article number	fiaf017
Number of pages	13
Journal	FEMS Microbiology Ecology
Volume	101
Issue number	3
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1093/femsec/fiaf017
Publication status	Published - 4 Mar 2025

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2025 The Author(s).

Funding

This study was supported by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Researc h thr ough the Gr avitation Gr ant Netherlands Earth System Science Centr e (gr ant number 024.002.001) and the Gr avitation Gr ant Soehngen Institute of Anaerobic Microbiology (grant number 024.002.002) as well as the Radboud Institute for Biological Research (RIBES) and the Faculty of Science at Radboud University. We are thankful to the Radboud University Plant Ecology and Physiology departments for allowing us to make use of their in- sect cage growing facilities in the greenhouse. T he authors thank Prof. Dr Thomas Rattei and his team for maintaining the Life Sci- ence Compute Cluster (LiSC; https://cube.univie.ac.at/lisc) that was used for computational analyses. This study was supported by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research through the Gravitation Grant Netherlands Earth System Science Centre (grant number 024.002.001) and the Gravitation Grant Soehngen Institute of Anaerobic Microbiology (grant number 024.002.002) as well as the Radboud Institute for Biological Research (RIBES) and the Faculty of Science at Radboud University. Acknowledgements

Funders	Funder number
Faculty of Science at Radboud University
Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek
Radboud Universitair Medisch Centrum
Soehngen Institute of Anaerobic Microbiology
Radboud Institute for Biological Research
Netherlands Earth System Science Centre	024.002.001
Gravitation Grant Soehngen Institute of Anaerobic Microbiology	024.002.002

Keywords

Pantoea
Sodalis
egg microbiome
gut microbiota
insect-microbe symbiosis
symbionts

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10.1093/femsec/fiaf017Licence: CC BY

fiaf017Final published version, 2 MBLicence: CC BY

Cite this

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abstract = "Phytophagous insects engage in symbiotic relationships with bacteria that contribute to digestion, nutrient supplementation, and development of the host. The analysis of shield bug microbiomes has been mainly focused on the gut intestinal tract predominantly colonized by Pantoea symbionts and other microbial community members in the gut or other organs have hardly been investigated. In this study, we reveal that the Southern green shield bug Nezara viridula harbours a Sodalis symbiont in several organs, with a notable prevalence in salivary glands, and anterior regions of the midgut. Removing external egg microbiota via sterilization profoundly impacted insect viability but did not disrupt the vertical transmission of Sodalis and Pantoea symbionts. Based on the dominance of Sodalis in testes, we deduce that N. viridula males could be involved in symbiont vertical transmission. Genomic analyses comparing Sodalis species revealed that Sodalis sp. Nvir shares characteristics with both free-living and obligate insect-associated Sodalis spp. Sodalis sp. Nvir also displays genome instability typical of endosymbiont lineages, which suggests ongoing speciation to an obligate endosymbiont. Together, our study reveals that shield bugs harbour unrecognized symbionts that might be paternally transmitted.",

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From eggs to guts: Symbiotic association of Sodalis nezarae sp. nov. with the Southern green shield bug Nezara viridula

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Funding

Keywords

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