Characterization of the Bacterial Profile from Natural and Laboratory Glossina Populations

Simple Summary Tsetse flies are large biting insects that inhabit much of tropical Africa and have a significant economic impact as the biological vectors of trypanosomes, which cause serious diseases to humans and livestock. A large array of bacteria, termed collectively symbionts, inhabit the internal organs of the flies’ body. These bacterial symbionts are involved in important aspects of the flies’ biology, including nutrition and reproduction. For instance, the main bacterial symbiont Wigglesworthia provides nutritional supplements necessary for host fertility and development, while Wolbachia is known to affect the reproduction of flies by causing a series of abnormalities. Therefore, the symbionts of tsetse flies show promising signs for exploitation and can be used for the development of innovative tools for the control of the flies and the diseases they carry. In this work, we used next-generation sequencing to characterize in detail the bacterial communities of four tsetse fly species. Their bacterial communities differed significantly, depending on the origin and the developmental stage of the flies. Certain important bacteria, such as Wigglesworthia and Sodalis, were present in all species and exhibited a high number of interactions with the other members of the bacterial community. Finally, Wolbachia was mostly present in G. morsitans samples. Abstract Tsetse flies (Glossina spp.; Diptera: Glossinidae) are viviparous flies that feed on blood and are found exclusively in sub-Saharan Africa. They are the only cyclic vectors of African trypanosomes, responsible for human African trypanosomiasis (HAT) and animal African trypanosomiasis (AAT). In this study, we employed high throughput sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene to unravel the diversity of symbiotic bacteria in five wild and three laboratory populations of tsetse species (Glossina pallidipes, G. morsitans, G. swynnertoni, and G. austeni). The aim was to assess the dynamics of bacterial diversity both within each laboratory and wild population in relation to the developmental stage, insect age, gender, and location. Our results indicated that the bacterial communities associated with the four studied Glossina species were significantly influenced by their region of origin, with wild samples being more diverse compared to the laboratory samples. We also observed that the larval microbiota was significantly different than the adults. Furthermore, the sex and the species did not significantly influence the formation of the bacterial profile of the laboratory colonies once these populations were kept under the same rearing conditions. In addition, Wigglesworthia, Acinetobacter, and Sodalis were the most abundant bacterial genera in all the samples, while Wolbachia was significantly abundant in G. morsitans compared to the other studied species. The operational taxonomic unit (OTU) co-occurrence network for each location (VVBD insectary, Doma, Makao, and Msubugwe) indicated a high variability between G. pallidipes and the other species in terms of the number of mutual exclusion and copresence interactions. In particular, some bacterial genera, like Wigglesworthia and Sodalis, with high relative abundance, were also characterized by a high degree of interactions.