Effect of plastic exposure on the microbiota in Galleria mellonella

Recent researches have revealed that Galleria mellonella larvae thrive on eating polyethylene films and could inspire biotechnological methods for degrading plastic to eliminate global pollution from plastic waste. In this study, we tested the feasibility of mastication of more plastic types by G. mellonella. high throughput 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing technique was used to characterise the alteration of microbial communities associated with G. mellonella specifically in salivary glands, gut contents as well as whole larvae tissue. Our results indicated that G. mellonella is able to masticate polyethylene, expanded polystyrene and polypropylene. The characteristics of polymer affect the rate of produced damage. Formation of C=O bond indication the functional carbonyl groups was detected as the metabolic intermediates of plastics in frass sample. We found that the mastication of EPS, PP or PE could significantly alter the microbial composition in gut content while did not appear to influence salivary glands microbial community. The species of Desulfovibrio vulgaris and genera of Enterobacter were significantly associated with the PE diets while mastication of polystyrene and polypropylene increased the abundance of Enterococcus. The exploration of bacterial communities in whole larvae confirmed the obtained result and showed that the abundance of Paenibacillus, Corynebacterium and Commamonadaceae affected by Styrofoam consumption in whole larvae samples.