16S V3 based Microbial community analysis of larval gut of Helicoverpa armigera

Helicoverpa armigera (Hübner) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae), is one of the serious insect pests infesting tomato worldwide. It is increasingly evident from many literatures that the gut microbiota plays a remarkable role in the insects’ life. The gut microbiome affects all aspects of the holobiont’s (insect plus all of its associated microorganisms) fitness such as adaptation, survival, development, growth, reproduction and evolution. To classify bacteria, the 16S rRNA is commonly used because of its ubiquitous presence among prokaryotic organisms. Due to its small size of approximately 1,500 bp and its alternating structure of highly conserved and hypervariable regions (V1-V9) the 16S rRNA gene is well suited for identification and phylogenic analysis of organisms. In standard approaches, DNA is amplified using primers binding in conserved regions allowing partial amplification of the 16S rRNA gene of most bacteria. PCR products of primers spanning one or more hypervariable region can be used for sequencing and subsequent classification.