Assessing the tsetse fly microbiome composition and the potential role of some bacteria taxa in trypanosome establishment. Tsetse microbiome

Tsetse flies, the biological vectors of African trypanosomes, harbour a variety of bacteria reported to modulate fly’s vector competence and may help developing novel vector control tools. This study provides an inventory of tsetse bacterial communities in Cameroon and explore their possible associations with trypanosome establishment in Glossina palpalis palpalis. High throughput sequencing of the V3-V4 hypervariable region of the bacterial 16S rRNA gene with subsequent metagenomic, multivariate and association analyses were used to investigate the levels and patterns of microbial diversity in four tsetse species. Overall 31 genera and four phyla were identified. The primary symbiont Wigglesworthia dominated almost all the samples with overall relative abundance of 47.29% and seemed to be replaced by Serratia or Burkholderia in some G. tachinoides flies. Significant differences were observed in the microbiome diversity and composition among tsetse species and between teneral and non teneral flies. Also, significant difference was observed in microbiome diversity between flies displaying or not mature infections. In addition, differential abundance testing showed some OTUs associated with mature trypanosome infection of flies. This study highlighted some bacteria associated with trypanosome establishment and maturation and therefore, could be targeted for novel control tools to block trypanosome development in tsetse flies.