Symbiotic bacteria play crucial roles in a herbivorous mite host suitability.

Background: The tomato russet mite (TRM), Aculops lycopersici, is a strictly herbivorous and economically significant pest that infests Solanaceae plants, but its host suitability varies, showing high performance on tomatoes. Although symbiotic bacteria have been suggested to play crucial roles in the host adaptation of herbivores, their effects on TRM remain unclear.

Results: In this study, using next generation high-throughput sequencing of the bacterial 16S rRNA data, we identified the bacterial diversity and community composition of TRM feeding on tomato, eggplant, and chili.