title: Symbiotic essential amino acids provisioning in the American cockroach, Periplaneta americana (Linnaeus) under various dietary conditions.
abstract: Insect gut microbes have been shown to provide nutrients such as essential amino acids (EAAs) to their hosts. How this symbiotic nutrient provisioning tracks with the host's demand is not well understood. In this study, we investigated microbial essential amino acid (EAA) provisioning in omnivorous American cockroaches (Periplaneta americana), fed low-quality (LQD) and comparatively higher-quality dog food (DF) diets using carbon stable isotope ratios of EAAs (δ (13)CEAA). We assessed non-dietary EAA input, quantified as isotopic offsets (Δ(13)C) between cockroach (δ (13)CCockroach EAA) and dietary (δ (13)CDietary EAA) EAAs, and subsequently determined biosynthetic origins of non-dietary EAAs in cockroaches using (13)C-fingerprinting with dietary and representative bacterial and fungal δ (13)CEAA. Investigation of biosynthetic origins of de novo non-dietary EAAs indicated bacterial origins of EAA in cockroach appendage samples, and a mixture of fungal and bacterial EAA origins in gut filtrate samples for both LQD and DF-fed groups. We attribute the bacteria-derived EAAs in cockroach appendages to provisioning by the fat body residing obligate endosymbiont, Blattabacterium and gut-residing bacteria. The mixed signatures of gut filtrate samples are attributed to the presence of unassimilated dietary, as well as gut microbial (bacterial and fungal) EAAs. This study highlights the potential impacts of dietary quality on symbiotic EAA provisioning and the need for further studies investigating the interplay between host EAA demands, host dietary quality and symbiotic EAA provisioning in response to dietary sufficiency or deficiency.
authors.affiliation: Department of Evolution, Ecology and Organismal Biology, Ohio State University , USA.
authors.forename: Paul A
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: Ayayee
authors.affiliation: Laboratory for Radiometric Dating and Stable Isotope Research, Christian-Albrechts-Universität Kiel , Kiel , Germany.
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Larsen
authors.affiliation: Department of Evolution, Ecology and Organismal Biology, Ohio State University , USA.
authors.forename: Zakee
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Sabree
keywords: Essential amino acids; Gut microbes; Insect host; Periplaneta americana; Symbiotic EAA provisioning; δ13CEAA analyses