Comparative analysis of the diversity of symbionts in fat body of long‐ and short‐winged brown planthoppers

Abstract The microbial community structure plays an important role in the internal environment of brown planthopper (BPH), Nilaparvata lugens (Hemiptera: Delphacidae), which is an indispensable part to reflect the internal environment of BPH. Wing dimorphism is a strategy for balancing flight and reproduction of insects. Here, quantitative fluorescence PCR was used to analyse the number and changes of the symbionts in the fat body of long‐ and short‐winged BPHs at different developmental stages. A metagenomic library was constructed based on the 16 S rRNA sequence and internal transcribed spacer sequence for high‐throughput sequencing, to analyze the community structure and population number of the symbionts of long‐ and short‐winged BPHs, and to make functional prediction. This study enriches the connotation of BPH symbionts, and laid a theoretical foundation for the subsequent study of BPH‐symbionts interaction and the function of symbionts in the host.