Bacterial communities associated with the gut of female house flies collected from three environmental niches in Kansas

Authors: Nayduch, Dana; NEUPANE, SARASWOTI - Kansas State University

Submitted to: Livestock Insect Work Conference
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 2/15/2019
Publication Date: 7/8/2019
Citation: Nayduch, D., Neupane, S. 2019. Bacterial communities associated with the gut of female house flies collected from three environmental niches in Kansas . Livestock Insect Work Conference. 1:1.

Interpretive Summary: .

Technical Abstract: Adult house flies serve as a bridge between sources of bacteria (manure, waste, wounds) and healthy or uninfected animals, including humans, and their habitats. Evaluating and characterizing the bacterial communities in flies collected from natural habitats will help in understanding their role in harboring and disseminating bacteria. In this study, we used next generation sequencing of bacterial 16S rRNA gene to characterize the gut bacterial communities of adult female house flies collected from three different environments in Manhattan, KS: agricultural (beef cattle feedlot), urban (downtown dumpsters), and mixed environment (business located near animal agriculture). Bacterial taxa affiliated to the phylum Firmicutes dominated the bacterial communities in flies from the agricultural setting while Proteobacteria was the predominant phylum in flies from the urban and mixed environments. In the lower taxonomic level, genera associated with feces or the vertebrate gut (rumen-associated microbes such as Blautia, Phascolarctobacterium, Anaerovibrio, Clostridiales, Ruminococcaceae, Escherichia-Shigella) dominated the agricultural environment. Importantly, potential human pathogens including Providencia and Aeromonas were dominant in the mixed environment whereas Enterobacteriaceae, Providencia, Enterococcus and Phascolarctobacterium were dominant in urban environment. Principal coordinates analysis showed that the bacterial communities in the house fly gut were similar between flies collected from the same site, but community composition varied significantly across the environments. Furthermore, bacterial species richness was highest in agricultural environment, which differed significantly from mixed and urban environments. Similarly, Shannon index was higher in agricultural environment than the other two environments. These results demonstrate that the house fly gut harbors complex bacterial communities, including potential human and animal pathogens, and that community composition is strongly influenced by the environment.