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Gut microbiota mediate caffeine detoxification in the primary insect pest of coffee
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Gut microbiota mediate caffeine detoxification in the primary insect pest of coffee
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Gut microbiota mediate caffeine detoxification in the primary insect pest of coffee
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Journal Article
Gut microbiota mediate caffeine detoxification in the primary insect pest of coffee
2015
Overview
The coffee berry borer (
Hypothenemus hampei
) is the most devastating insect pest of coffee worldwide with its infestations decreasing crop yield by up to 80%. Caffeine is an alkaloid that can be toxic to insects and is hypothesized to act as a defence mechanism to inhibit herbivory. Here we show that caffeine is degraded in the gut of
H. hampei
, and that experimental inactivation of the gut microbiota eliminates this activity. We demonstrate that gut microbiota in
H. hampei
specimens from seven major coffee-producing countries and laboratory-reared colonies share a core of microorganisms. Globally ubiquitous members of the gut microbiota, including prominent
Pseudomonas
species, subsist on caffeine as a sole source of carbon and nitrogen.
Pseudomonas
caffeine demethylase genes are expressed
in vivo
in the gut of
H. hampei
, and re-inoculation of antibiotic-treated insects with an isolated
Pseudomonas
strain reinstates caffeine-degradation ability confirming their key role.
The coffee berry borer, the main insect pest of coffee, feeds and lives on the caffeine-rich beans despite caffeine’s toxic effects. Here Ceja-Navarro
et al.
show that certain microbes, including
Pseudomonas
species, mediate caffeine detoxification in the insect’s gut.
Publisher
Nature Publishing Group UK,Nature Publishing Group,Nature Pub. Group,Nature Portfolio
