Microbial synergists pathogenic to Lymantria dispar: Chitinolytic and fermentative bacterial interactions

A chitinolytic bacterium isolated from a healthy gypsy moth, Lymantria dispar, larva was shown to be pathogenic to larvae when administered per os after growth on chitin broth. However, the chitin hydrolase produced by this isolate had a pH optimum for activity of 5.5 and the high alkalinity in the mesenteron of L. dispar larvae severely limited chitinolysis of the midgut lining. Fermentative, nonpathogenic, acid-producing bacteria isolated from healthy gypsy moth larvae effectively lowered larval mesenteron pH when administered per os and the combination of fermentative isolates with a crude culture aliquot of the chitinolytic strain produced a synergistic increase in mortality over either dose administered by itself. Increased mortality was also observed for most fermentative strains when they were combined with crude supernatants of centrifuged cultures of the chitinolytic strain, although these combinations proved less effective than when fermenters were added to the whole-culture aliquots of the chitinolytic strain. In vitro studies showed that other bacteria isolated from environments foreign to that of the gypsy moth could ferment carbohydrates with acid production at an alkaline pH; however, in vivo studies demonstrated that these bacteria were incapable both of poising larval midgut pH and of enhancing mortality when added to chitinolytic bacteria.