Bacterial communities associated with invasive populations of Bactrocera dorsalis (Diptera: Tephritidae) in China L.J. Liu 1 , I. Martinez-Sañudo 2 , L. Mazzon 2 , C.S. Prabhakar 1,3 , V. Girolami 2 , Y.L. Deng 4 , Y. Dai 1 and Z.H. Li 1 * 1 Department of Entomology, College of Plant Protection, China Agricultural University, Beijing, China: 2 Dipartimento di Agronomia Ambientale e Produzioni Vegetali, Università di Padova – Agripolis, Viale dell’Università, Legnaro, Padova, Italy: 3 Department of Entomology, Bihar Agricultural University, Sabour-813210, Bhagalpur, Bihar, India: 4 Xishuangbanna Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau, Xishuangbanna, Yunnan, China Abstract The oriental fruit fly Bactrocera dorsalis (Hendel) is a destructive insect pest of a wide range of fruits and vegetables. This pest is an invasive species and is currently distributed in some provinces of China. To recover the symbiotic bacteria of B. dorsalis from different invasion regions in China, we researched the bacterial diversity of this fruit fly among one laboratory colony (Guangdong, China) and 15 wild populations (14 sites in China and one site in Thailand) using DNA-based approaches. The con- struction of 16S rRNA gene libraries allowed the identification of 24 operational taxo- nomic units of associated bacteria at the 3% distance level, and these were affiliated with 3 phyla, 5 families, and 13 genera. The higher bacterial diversity was recovered in wild populations compared with the laboratory colony and in samples from early term invasion regions compared with samples from late term invasion regions. Moreover, Klebsiella pneumoniae and Providencia sp. were two of the most frequently recovered bacteria, present in flies collected from three different regions in China where B. dorsalis is invasive. This study for the first time provides a systemic investi- gation of the symbiotic bacteria of B. dorsalis from different invasion regions in China. Keywords: Bactrocera dorsalis, bacteria diversity, invasion population, laboratory colony, wild population (Accepted 25 April 2016) Introduction The oriental fruit fly Bactrocera dorsalis (Hendel) is a signifi- cant invasive fruit fly pest in parts of Asia and Africa and can cause considerable economic losses (Clarke et al., 2005; Schutze et al., 2015). The damage caused by this fruit fly can be attributed to its high fecundity and wide host range (Li & Ye, 2000). Much attention has been paid to the population genetics of B. dorsalis to uncover the origin and invasion path- ways of this pest in China (Aketarawong et al., 2007; Li et al., 2007; Shi et al., 2010). The invasions of B. dorsalis in China can be divided into two branches: one originated from South Asia, and the other originated from Southeast Asia. The Southeast Asia-originated fruit flies landed in China at Yunnan Province and then expanded to Sichuan, Chongqing, Guizhou, and Guangxi Provinces. The South Asia-originated flies may have landed at Guangdong and Guangxi Provinces and then expanded to south and east China, including Fujian, Zhejiang, and Jiangsu Provinces and Shanghai city (Li et al., 2007, 2012; Shi et al., 2010). *Author for correspondence Tel: 86 -10-62733000 Fax: 86-10-62733404 E-mail: lizh@cau.edu.cn Bulletin of Entomological Research, Page 1 of 11 doi:10.1017/S0007485316000390 © Cambridge University Press 2016