Response of the green June beetle and its gut microbiome to RDX and phenanthrene
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ORIGINAL PAPER
Response of the green June beetle and its gut microbiome to RDX and phenanthrene C. M. Jung1 · M. Carr1 · E. Fleischman2 · C. J. Roesch1,3 Received: 21 April 2020 / Revised: 31 August 2020 / Accepted: 28 September 2020 © This is a U.S. government work and not under copyright protection in the U.S.; foreign copyright protection may apply 2020
Abstract Green June beetles are a cosmopolitan pest in the United States. Adults are voracious consumers of tree and vine fruit, while their larvae can damage and inadvertently consume root systems, particularly those of grasses, as they move through the soil and forage for detritus. Larvae ingest and process large volumes of soil while in the process of feeding. Due to their intimate contact with the soil, it was hypothesized that soil contaminants that are known animal toxins would perturb the larval and affect their overall health and survival. Studies of this kind are important contributions to the development of new model organisms and our understanding of interactions between the environment, contaminants, gut microbiome, and animal development, health, and survival. It is important to continue to develop relevant model organisms for monitoring toxicity as regulations for working with vertebrates becomes more prohibitive. In this study, the green June beetle larvae were exposed to the explosive RDX (royal demolition explosive; 1,3,5-trinitro-1,3,5,-triazacyclohexane) and phenanthrene throughout their entire soil bound development, starting within the first few days of hatching through to their emergence as adults. The overall findings included that even at high concentrations, RDX and phenanthrene (25 ppm) exerted no significant effect on body weight or survival. Also, there was little apparent effect of RDX and phenanthrene on the bacterial microbiome, and no statistical association with measurable health effects. Nevertheless, the green June beetle is an interesting model for soil toxicity experiments in the future as they are easy to collect, house, and handle. Keywords Beetle · RDX · Phenanthrene · Microbiome
Introduction Insects have gained interest as models for animal toxicity and physiological studies due to their ubiquity, cost-effectiveness, and ease of rearing (Adamski et al. 2019). Traditional vertebrate models are often expensive, have higher space requirements, longer life cycles, and lower fecundity. Beetles (Coleoptera) have garnered attention as being at the intersection of agronomy, human health and physiology, and medicine (Adamski et al. 2019; Bingsohn et al. 2016). In Editorial responsibility: Jing Chen. * C. M. Jung [email protected] 1
U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center, Environmental Laboratory, 3909 Halls Ferry Road, Vicksburg 39180, MS, USA
2
ThermoFisher, Eugene, OR, USA
3
Mississippi State University, Starkville, MS, USA
finding an animal model relevant to environmental contaminant risk assessment, June beetles appeared to be a suitable candidate, as they are prolific, generally cons
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