A Very Thorough Review of Microbiology and the Black Soldier Fly

What great time for a review on the black soldier fly and its associated microbial community! With the Insects Feed the World Conference happening in a couple of weeks in Wuhan, China, and the number of presentations on microbiology and the BSF scheduled, this paper will serve as a great way for any attending the conference to prep their knowledge beforehand. 

The article was published in Applied and Environmental Microbiology just a month or so ago.  The title is:

Microbial Community Dynamics during Rearing of Black Soldier Fly Larvae (Hermetia illucens) and Impact on Exploitation Potential
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I am not sure if it is available open access or not. So, at minimum, here is the link to the abstract.

The authors did a superb job summarizing what is known at present, while also identifying potential research topics for the future. One take home message is that really there is not too much known at this time (of course, this statement is relative in terms of what is known about microbiology for other species or the topic in general). 

They break the discussion down into the following topics:
1- Gut microbiome
2-Impact of substrate composition on Hermetia illucens development
3-Microbial community of Hermetia illucens larvae on  natural substrates
4-Functions of the microbial community during the life cycle of Hermetia illucens (digestion/oviposition/detoxification)- as a side note, I love seeing researchers use the term inter kingdom with such discussion points (check out my papers in Chemical Ecology, Animal Behaviour or BioEssay to understand my point- I truly believe microbes drive most behavior observed by invertebrates and vertebrates alike)
5-Impact of microbial community manipulation on Hermetia illucens (growth/pathogen reduction)
6-Exploitation of antibacterial properties of Hermetia illucens (BSF as additive to aid host immunity/modulation of larval immunity/search for antibacterial compounds)

I really like this paper and wish to congratulate my colleagues on a most excellent job!  This paper is a definite must read for anyone interested in the BSF

Author

Jeffery K. Tomberlin, PhD, Excited about this paper!
Director, EVO Conversion Systems
​Twitter: @FliesFacility