Wuhan Institute of Landscape Architecture 1 article published in JoVE Biology Preparing and Rearing Axenic Insects with Tissue Cultured Seedlings for Host-Gut Microbiota Interaction Studies of the Leaf Beetle Meiqi Ma1, Pei Liu1, Jingya Yu2, Runhua Han3, Letian Xu1 1State Key Laboratory of Biocatalysis and Enzyme Engineering, School of Life Sciences, Hubei University, 2Institute of Plant Protection, Wuhan Institute of Landscape Architecture, 3McKetta Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Texas at Austin To obtain an axenic insect, its egg surface is sterilized, and the hatched larva is subsequently reared using axenic leaves. This method provides an efficient way for axenic insect preparation without administering antibiotics or developing an artificial diet, which can also be applied to other leaf-eating insects.
