Isolation and identification of culturable bacteria from honeydew of Indian lac insect, Kerria lacca (Kerr) (Hemiptera: Tachardiidae)

Publication date: Available online 1 October 2018Source: Meta GeneAuthor(s): Gulsaz Shamim, Kewal Krishan Sharma, Ranganathan RamaniAbstractIndian lac insect, Kerria lacca belongs to a distinct group of phytosuccivorous insects feeding on sugar-rich phloem sap and excreting excess sugar in the form of large quantities of honeydew, which serves as an excellent medium for microbial growth. This work has made a novel attempt to isolate and identify culturable bacterial species associated with lac insect honeydew, which can be further used to unravel their significance by identifying and characterizing semiochemicals or bacterial volatiles involved in signalling the natural enemies of lac insects and can be effectively used in biological pest control. To isolate microorganisms present in honeydew, droplets of honeydew were collected, diluted and spotted on suitable culture media. Further, 16S rRNA sequencing method was undertaken for the identification of isolated bacterial species. Following BLAST analysis, the nucleotide sequences were submitted to GenBank. Ten different bacterial species were isolated in which species of Enterobacter was the most abundant isolate identified. Others were Klebsiella variicola, Stenotrophomonas maltophilia, Pantoea cypripedii, Pseudomonas stutzeri, Pantoea dispersa, Bordetella trematum and Cedecea davisae.
Source: Meta Gene - Category: Genetics & Stem Cells Source Type: research
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