Using axenic and gnotobiotic insects to examine the role of different microbes on the development and reproduction of the kissing bug Rhodnius prolixus (Hemiptera: Reduviidae)

Kissing bugs (Hempitera: Reduviidae) are obligately and exclusively blood feeding insects. Vertebrate blood is thought to provide insufficient B vitamins to insects, which rely on symbiotic relationships with bacteria that provision these nutrients. Kissing bugs harbour environmentally acquired bacteria in their gut lumen, without which they are unable to develop to adulthood. Rhodococcus rhodnii was initially identified as the sole symbiont of Rhodnius prolixus, but modern studies of the kissing bug microbiome suggest that R. rhodnii is not always present or abundant in wild‐caught individuals. We asked whether R. rhodnii or other bacteria alone could function as symbionts of R. prolixus. We produced insects with no bacteria (axenic) or with known microbiomes (gnotobiotic). Gnotobiotic insects harbouring R. rhodnii alone developed faster, had higher survival, and laid more eggs than those harbouring other bacterial monocultures, including other described symbionts of kissing bugs. R. rhodnii grew to high titre in the guts of R. prolixus while other tested species were found at much lower abundance. Rhodococcus species tested had nearly identical B vitamin biosynthesis genes, and dietary supplementation of B vitamins had a relatively minor effect on development and survival of gnotobiotic R. prolixus. Our results indicate that R. prolixus have a higher fitness when harbouring R. rhodnii than other bacteria tested, that this may be due to R. rhodnii existing at higher titres and providing more B vitamins to the host, and that symbiont B vitamin synthesis is probably a necessary but not sufficient function of gut bacteria in kissing bugs.