Microbial Stress Resistance of Eristalis tenax Rat-Tailed Maggots

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Department of Entomology, Faculty of Science, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt

2 Department of Entomology, Faculty of Science, Cairo University, Giza, Egypt

Abstract

The maggots of the drone fly Eristalis tenax (Diptera) have survived in habitats with extreme microbial contamination. Despite this polluted environment, they avoid infection by microorganisms. We have investigated the first physical barrier, the cuticle surface of E. tenax maggots collected from Alakrasha dain, Egypt, using scanning electron microscopy which revealed an array of high density and dimensions of nano and microstructures that narrow to sharp points appear to make it difficult for bacteria to colonize its surface which interferes with the formation of biofilms and potentially acts as a defense against bacterial infection. This investigation leading us to more examine the antibacterial properties of the whole maggot extract naturally without any previous simulation, the results were promising against Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 6538, Staphylococcus mutans ATCC 25175, Escherichia coli ATCC 25922, Salmonella enterica Serotype Typhimurium ATCC 14028 bacteria compared to Nitrofurantoin antibiotic. Such antibacterial properties of both the maggot cuticle surface and the whole maggot extract have applications in many different fields, including antibacterial surfaces and biofilms besides the future isolating and developing of antimicrobial peptides from the maggot crude extract which could be a breakthrough against antibiotic resistance.

Keywords

Egyptian Academic Journal of Biological Sciences. A, Entomology
Volume 13, Issue 4
December 2020
Pages 275-282

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