Neoseiulus cucumeris is a predatory mite used for biological control of arthropod pests. Mass-reared predators are fed with factitious prey mites such as Tyrophagus putrescentiae. Although some information on certain endosymbionts of N. cucumeris and T. putrescentiae exists, it is unclear whether both species share bacterial communities. The bacterial communities in populations of predator and prey mites, as well as the occurence of potential acaropathogenic bacteria were analyzed. The comparisons were based on the following groups: (i) N. cucumeris mass-production; (ii) N. cucumeris laboratory population with disease symptoms; (iii) T. putrescentiae pure populations and; (iv) T. putrescentiae from rearing units of N. cucumeris. Only 15% of OTUs were present in all samples from predatory and prey mite populations (core OTUs): the intracellular symbionts Wolbachia, Cardinium, plus other Blattabacterium-like, Solitalea-like, and Bartonella-like symbionts. Environmental bacteria were more abundant in predatory mites, while symbiotic bacteria prevailed in prey mites. Relative numbers of certain bacterial taxa were significantly different between the microbiota of prey mites reared with and without N. cucumeris. No significant differences were found in the bacterial communities of healthy N. cucumeris compared to N. cucumeris showing disease symptoms. We did not identify any confirmed acaropathogenic bacteria among microbiota.

Crop Research Institute Drnovska 507 73 Prague 6 Ruzyne CZ 161 06 Czechia Czech Republic

Department of Entomology Newe Ya'ar Research Center Agricultural Research Organization Ministry of Agriculture P O Box 1021 Ramat Yishay IL 30095 Israel

Evolutionary Biology Section School of Biological Sciences University of Reading Reading RG6 6AS UK

Research and Development Department Biobest Belgium N 5 Ilse Velden 18 Westerlo B 2260 Belgium

SASA 1 Roddinglaw Road Edinburgh EH12 9FJ UK

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Sci Rep. 2018 Jan 17;8(1):1317. doi: 10.1038/s41598-018-19514-8. PubMed

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The Mite Tyrophagus putrescentiae Hosts Population-Specific Microbiomes That Respond Weakly to Starvation