The Mediterranean fruit fly and its bacteria – potential for improving sterile insect technique operations

The interaction between insects and micro-organisms is multifaceted, ranging from pathogenicity to complex mutualistic relations. The increasing number of studies addressing the bacteria-insect interface is gradually revealing the intricacy of these interactions (Bourtzis and Miller 2003, 2009). Until recently, the association between the tephritid fruit flies and bacteria received relatively little scrutiny (see Drew and Lloyd 1987, 1991; Lauzon 2003; Behar et al. 2009; for reviews of tephritidbacteria interactions). Classical microbiological methods revealed that Mediterranean fruit flies (Ceratitis capitata, Diptera: Tephritidae), harbour a community of diazotrophic bacteria in their digestive system. Marchini et al. (2002), using culture-dependent methods, studied the bacteria associated with the oesophageal bulb (a foregut diverticulum) of C. capitata. They found that this organ harbours a discrete community of bacteria, comprised mainly, as in other fruit flies, of members of the family Enterobacteriaceae. Specifically, Klebsiella oxytoca and Enterobacter agglomerans were identified as the most