Metagenomic DNA analysis of bacterial communities associated with striped mealy bugs, Ferrisia virgata (Cockerell) (Homoptera: Pseudococcidae) infesting Cassava

The endosymbionts associated with F. virgata may play significant role on the physiology of host which include resistance against pesticides and ability to infest various plant host. Hence metagenomic DNA analysis of whole bacterial community associated with these mealy bugs is of great importance to reveal the various functions of bacteria associated with them. So in the present study, we used the Illumina Next-Generation Sequencing platform to explore the total bacterial community associated with the mealy bug and to analyze the functional diversity of the bacteria in their host. The study revealed the presence of 6 bacterial phyla, 11 classes, 11 orders, 10 families, 11 genera and 10 major species. The majority of the sequences were those of the Proteobacteria (99.36% of the classified sequences), Firmicutes (0.21%), followed by Actinobacteria (0.08%), Bacteroidetes (0.02%) and unclassified bacteria (0.32%). The metagenomic sequences obtained have been submitted to Sequence Read Archive (SRA) of GenBank database as a file under accession number SRR1914365. Moreover, this study will be helpful to study the functional and comparative genomics of the endosymbionts associated with the insect host.