Gut symbiotic microbiota of bordered plant bugs. insect gut metagenome

In this project, we investigated gut symbiotic microbiota of 3 species of bordered plant bugs, Physopelta gutta, P. parviceps, and P. slanbuschii (Hemiptera: Largidae), to characterize biological nature of the gut symbiotic bacteria, especially focusing on the symbiont localization, phylogenetic placement, and transmission mechanism of the symbiont, which would highlight the evolutionary mechanisms of the gut symbiosis in stinkbugs.