A research team from UV Cavanilles Institute has found in Albufera different bacterial communities that break down the toxic compounds from the plants they feed on. The investigation regarding those microorganisms, which can be found in the digestive tract of two different kind of butterfly larvae, has been published in Frontiers in Microbiology magazine and can be related to latex and alkaloids disposal in polluted environment.

This will allow us to understand why those insects can feed on plants that are usually toxic to insects. In addition, according to one of the study’s authors, Cristina Vilanova, the bacterial species isolated could be used to eliminate or transform in a controlled way toxic compounds such as latex and alkaloids (organic substances found in nature that constitute the active ingredients of many narcotics and common vegetal toxic substances).

The Hyles euphorbiae and Britys crini butterflies feed on plants such as sea lilies (rich in alkaloids) and euphorbias (rich in latex) respectively, and they are the insects in which the bacterial communities have been found.
This is the first time the microbiome (the totality of microorganisms distributed in certain parts of the organism) of those insects is investigated. It is also the first time that bacteria capable of breaking down latex and alkaloids associated to insects are found in Albufera, specifically in the sand dunes between Pinedo and El Saler.

The research of this valencian group has made possible to describe the process of detoxification of latex in this euphorbia-eater butterflies larvae digestive tract.In this process, it has been highlighted the important role of a bacterial specie, Enterococcus casseliflavus. Despite it is a common inhabitant in the intestines of many insects, seems to be responsible for the detoxification of latex in the digestive tract of the H. euphorbiae butterfly.

In addition, the article published by Cristina Vilanova, Joaquín Baixeras, Amparo Latorre i Manuel Porcar, The Generalist Inside the Specialist: Gut Bacterial Communities of Two Insect Species Feeding on Toxic Plants Are Dominated by Enterococcus sp, shows that the bacteria detected in those two insects intestines have different detoxification mechanisms. On the one hand, there is the crystallisation. On the other hand, the direct break down of the toxic compounds. 

The perspective given by the researches from UV Cavanilles Institute of Biodiversity and Evolutionary Biology, the Institute for Systems and Integrative Biology (I2SysBio, a mixed centre of CSIC and UV) and Unitat Mixta d’Investigació en Genòmica i Salut from FISABIO (Higher Public Health Research Centre) expands the opened research lines available regarding the microbial community associated with insects’ intestine, especially butterflies. These lines have been focused in species considered as agricultural or wood pests until now.

Article:

Vilanova C, Baixeras J, Latorre A and Porcar M (2016) The Generalist Inside the Specialist: Gut Bacterial Communities of Two Insect Species Feeding on Toxic Plants Are Dominated by Enterococcus sp. Front. Microbiol. 7:1005. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2016.01005

Caption, cover and gallery

(from left to right): Amparo Latorre, Joaquín Baixeras y Cristina Vilanova.

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