Assessing the effects of gut bacteria manipulation on the development of the oriental fruit fly, Bactrocera dorsalis (Diptera; Tephritidae) Kanjana Khaeso 1 & Awawing A. Andongma 1 & Mazarin Akami 1 & Biangkham Souliyanonh 1 & Jian Zhu 1 & Patcharin Krutmuang 2 & Chang-Ying Niu 1 Received: 17 January 2017 /Accepted: 5 May 2017 # Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2017 Abstract Bactrocera dorsalis (Diptera: Tephritidae) is a seri- ous menace to agricultural production worldwide. In order to prevent further damage, it is of paramount important that cost- effective strategies should be developed for their manage- ment. Gut bacteria has established diverse relationships with their insect hosts, which could be exploited in pest manage- ment programs to improve on control efficiency. In this study, gut bacteria isolates identified by culture dependent technique were incorporated into larval diets in an attempt to understand the roles they play in the development and survival of oriental fruit fly. From our results, the isolated bacteria belonged to four different phyla including the Firmicutes, Proteobacteria, Bacteroidetes and Actinobacteria. The response of the fly to different gut isolates varied greatly. Diets enriched with Enterococcus phoeniculicola had lower larval developmental duration, higher pupal weight, and an increased percentage survival. On the other hand, diets supplemented with Lactobacillus lactis had negative effects on B. dorsalis devel- opment. This study provides clues on how symbiotic bacteria could be exploited in mass rearing for an efficient implemen- tation of the Sterile Insect Technique (SIT) in pest manage- ment programs. Keywords Bactrocera dorsalis . Gut bacteria . Fruit fly . Fitness . Mass rearing 1 Introduction The Oriental fruit fly, Bactrocera dorsalis Hendel (Diptera; Tephritidae) is one of the most important agricultural pests with over 350 hosts worldwide (Drew 2004; Clarke et al. 2005). In recent years, the management of the Oriental fruit fly has attracted a lot of attention due to the high levels of economic losses caused by this pest (Caceres et al. 2014; Schutze et al. 2015). Therefore different control strategies are currently being used in the management of this pest (Vargas et al. 2007; Bhagat et al. 2013). One of such tech- niques is the Sterile Insect Technique (SIT) which has been successfully incorporated into integrated pest management programs for the control of the tephritids (Orankanok et al. 2007; Barclay et al. 2014; Vargas et al. 2015). A typical ex- ample is the successful eradication of B. dorsalis in Mariana Islands (Steiner et al. 1970). In SIT programs, production of sterile males in large quantities is of paramount importance and very expensive. It is also crucial for these laboratory- reared flies to possess some fitness attributes that could enable them to survive and out-compete wild flies after their release (Hamden et al. 2013). Therefore, there is an urgent need for research to be carried out to develop cost-effective production methods and improve on the copulatory success of laboratory- reared flies. Though the associations of tephritids and their symbionts have been known for almost a century (Petri 1910) it was only much later that these symbionts were first reported to play a role in the biology of these flies (Hagen 1966). In an attempt to understand the roles symbiotic bacteria play in symbiotic re- lationships with these flies, extensive studies have been * Patcharin Krutmuang patcharink26@gmail.com * Chang-Ying Niu niuchangying88@163.com 1 College of Plant Science & Technology, Hubei Insect Resource Utilization and Sustainable Pest Management Key Laboratory, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, China 2 Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology, Faculty of Agriculture, Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai 50200, Thailand Symbiosis DOI 10.1007/s13199-017-0493-4