Kim, Sung Hun Park, Goeun Park, Jin-Soo Kwon, Hak Cheol 2024-01-19T14:01:28Z 2024-01-19T14:01:28Z 2021-10-21 2021-09 2076-2607 https://pubs.kist.re.kr/handle/201004/116533 The dung beetle Copris tripartitus Waterhouse (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae) is a coprophagous insect that lives in and feeds primarily on the feces of mammalian herbivores and is known to protect their offspring from the pathogen-rich environment by performing parental care for brood balls. Brood balls under continuous management by dung beetle are rarely contaminated by entomopathogenic fungi compared to abandoned brood balls. On the supposition that dung beetles may benefit from mutualistic bacteria that protect their offspring against fungal pathogens, we evaluated the antifungal activities of bacteria isolated from the dung beetle and brood ball. As a result, bacterial isolates, mainly streptomycetes, manifested potent and broad-spectrum antifungal activity against various fungi, including entomopathogens. Of the isolates, Streptomyces sp. AT67 exhibited pronounced antifungal activities. Culture-dependent and independent approaches show that this strain has occurred continuously in dung beetles that were collected over three years. Moreover, metabolic profiling and chemical investigation demonstrated that the strain produced an antifungal polyene macrocyclic lactam, sceliphrolactam, as a major product. Our findings imply that specific symbiotic bacteria of C. tripartitus are likely to contribute brood ball hygiene by inhibiting fungal parasites in the environment. English MDPI METARHIZIUM-ANISOPLIAE ENTOMOPATHOGENIC FUNGI WATERHOUSE COLEOPTERA BEAUVERIA-BASSIANA OFFSPRING SURVIVAL SCARABAEIDAE DNA COMMUNITIES PROTECTION BACTERIUM Antifungal Streptomyces spp., Plausible Partners for Brood-Caring of the Dung Beetle Copris tripartitus Article 10.3390/microorganisms9091980 1 MICROORGANISMS, v.9, no.9 MICROORGANISMS 9 9 scie scopus 000701532100001 2-s2.0-85115100094 Microbiology Microbiology Article METARHIZIUM-ANISOPLIAE ENTOMOPATHOGENIC FUNGI WATERHOUSE COLEOPTERA BEAUVERIA-BASSIANA OFFSPRING SURVIVAL SCARABAEIDAE DNA COMMUNITIES PROTECTION BACTERIUM dung beetle Copris tripartitus DGGE insect-symbionts antifungal agents