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The Intestinal Bacterial Community in the Food Waste-Reducing Larvae of Hermetia illucens

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Abstract

As it is known that food waste can be reduced by the larvae of Hermetia illucens (Black soldier fly, BSF), the scientific and commercial value of BSF larvae has increased recently. We hypothesised that the ability of catabolic degradation by BSF larvae might be due to intestinal microorganisms. Herein, we analysed the bacterial communities in the gut of BSF larvae by pyrosequencing of extracting intestinal metagenomic DNA from larvae that had been fed three different diets. The 16S rRNA sequencing results produced 9737, 9723 and 5985 PCR products from larval samples fed food waste, cooked rice and calf forage, respectively. A BLAST search using the EzTaxon program showed that the bacterial community in the gut of larvae fed three different diets was mainly composed of the four phyla with dissimilar proportions. Although the composition of the bacterial communities depended on the different nutrient sources, the identified bacterial strains in the gut of BSF larvae represented unique bacterial species that were unlike the intestinal microflora of other insects. Thus, our study analysed the structure of the bacterial communities in the gut of BSF larvae after three different feedings and assessed the application of particular bacteria for the efficient degradation of organic compounds.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by the Rural Development Administration, Korea (PJ006893). H. Jeon was supported by a graduate school scholarship from Kyung Hee University. Pyrosequencing data were analysed by the Chun Laboratory at Seoul National University.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biology, College of Science, Kyung Hee University, Seoul, Korea

    Hyunbum Jeon, Soyoung Park & Sung-Jae Lee

  2. Insect Resources Division, Department of Agricultural Biology, National Academy of Agricultural Science and Technology, Rural Development Administration, Suwon, Korea

    Jiyoung Choi, Sang-Beom Lee & Youngcheol Choi

  3. Division of Ecoscience, Ewha Womans University, Seoul, Korea

    Gilsang Jeong

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  1. Hyunbum Jeon
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Correspondence to Sung-Jae Lee.

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Jeon, H., Park, S., Choi, J. et al. The Intestinal Bacterial Community in the Food Waste-Reducing Larvae of Hermetia illucens . Curr Microbiol 62, 1390–1399 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00284-011-9874-8

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