Grasshoppers (Insecta, Orthoptera, Acridoidea) are a large group of agricultural and animal husbandry pests. They have a large food intake with high utilization of plants fibers. However, the composition of the grasshopper gut microbial community, especially the relationship between gut microbial community and cellulose digestibility, remains unclear. In this research, 16S rRNA gene sequences were used to determine the intestinal microbial diversity of Acrida cinerea, Trilophidia annulata, Atractomorpha sinensis and Sphingonotus mongolicus, and Spearman correlation analysis was performed between the intestinal microbes of grasshoppers and the digestibility of cellulose and hemicellulose. The results showed that Proteobacteria was the dominant phylum and Klebsiella was the dominant genus in the guts of the four species of grasshoppers; there was no significant difference in the species composition of the gut microbes of the four species of grasshoppers. Spearman correlation analysis showed that Brevibacterium and Stenotrophomonas were significantly correlated with cellulose digestibility. Brevibacterium, Clavibacter, Microbacterium and Stenotrophomonas were significantly associated with hemicellulose digestibility. Our results confirmed that the gut microbes of grasshoppers were correlated with the digestibility of cellulose and hemicellulose, and indicated that grasshoppers may have the potential to develop into bioreactors, which can be applied to improve straw utilization efficiency in the future.
Keywords: 16S rRNA; cellulose digestibility; grasshopper; gut microbiome; microbial diversity.