Bacterial secondary metabolites are a valuable source of various molecules that have antibacterial and anticancer activity. In this study, ten endosymbiotic bacteria of aphids, aphid predators and ants were isolated. Bacterial strains were identified according to the 16S rRNA gene. Ethyl acetate fractions of methanol extract (EA-ME) were prepared from each isolated bacterium and tested for their antibacterial activities using the disk diffusion method. The EA-ME of three bacterial species, Planococcus sp., Klebsiella aerogenes, Enterococcus avium, from the pomegranate aphids Aphis punicae, Chrysoperia carnea, and Tapinoma magnum, respectively, exhibited elevated antibacterial activity against one or several of the five pathogenic bacteria tested. The inhibition zones ranged from 10.00 ± 0.13 to 20.00 ± 1.11 mm, with minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) values ranging from 0.156 mg/mL to 1.25 mg/mL. The most notable antibacterial activity was found in the EA-ME of K. aerogenes against Klebsiella pneumonia and Escherichia coli, with an MIC value of 0.156 mg/mL. The cytotoxic activity of EA-ME was dependent on the cell line tested. The most significant cytotoxicity effect was observed for extracts of K. aerogenes and E. avium, at 12.5 µg/mL, against the epithelial cells of lung carcinoma (A549), with a cell reduction of 79.4% and 67.2%, respectively. For the EA-ME of K. aerogenes and Pantoea agglomerans at 12.5 µg/mL, 69.4% and 67.8% cell reduction were observed against human colon cancer (Hct116), respectively. Gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis of three EA-ME revealed the presence of several bioactive secondary metabolites that have been reported previously to possess antibacterial and anticancer properties. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to examine the biological activities of endosymbiotic bacteria in aphids, aphid predators and ants. The promising data presented in this study may pave the way for alternative drugs to overcome the continued emergence of multidrug-resistant bacteria, and find alternative drugs to conventional cancer therapies.

Aphids are a ubiquitous group of pests in agriculture that cause serious losses. For sustainable aphid identification, it is necessary to develop a precise and fast aphid identification tool. A new simple chemotaxonomy approach to rapidly identify aphids was implemented. The method was calibrated in comparison to the established phylogenetic analysis. For chemotaxonomic analysis, aphids were crushed, their headspace compounds were collected through closed-loop stripping (CLS) and analysed using gas chromatography—mass spectrometry (GC-MS). GC-MS data were then subjected to a discriminant analysis using CAP12.exe software, which identified key biomarkers that distinguish aphid species. A dichotomous key taking into account the presence and absence of a set of species-specific biomarkers was derived from the discriminant analysis which enabled rapid and reliable identification of aphid species. As the method overcomes the limits of morphological identification, it works with aphids at all life stages and in both genders. Thus, our method enables entomologists to assign aphids to growth stages and identify the life history of the investigated aphids, i.e., the food plant(s) they fed on. Our experiments clearly showed that the method could be used as a software to automatically identify aphids.

Published aphid volatile records are difficult to explore when chemical annotations, identification confidence and biological context are stored separately. We developed VOC·BIO Library to integrate these evidence layers with reproducible computational tools. Version 1.0 preserves 81 published GC-MS Bio features across 15 biological and sample contexts, with 352 reported feature-context presence records. The features comprise 11 authentic-standard-supported annotations, 59 tentative library identifications and 11 unknowns. Seventy named candidate interpretations are linked to 55 curated molecular structures. Eleven interface features provide an overview dashboard, a published-feature catalogue, chemical structures and descriptors, biological contexts, descriptive statistics, evidence tracing, docking predictions, a feature-context network, structural similarity, source references and deterministic guided questions. The 81 × 15 presence matrix supports context prevalence, Jaccard similarity and average-linkage clustering. Twenty-eight features are listed in only one context. The full evidence network contains 190 nodes and 452 documented links. These are descriptive publication-based relationships, not biological replicate measurements or ecological effects. Structure-enabled comparisons use Morgan fingerprints and Tanimoto similarity without upgrading the published identification confidence. An additional exploratory study screens 20 candidates against MvicOBP3 and NribOBP3 in 200 docking runs with 2000 retained poses. Independent redocking controls distinguish pose recovery from score ranking. The platform therefore connects source evidence, biological context and complementary analyses within a traceable research environment. Docking, structural similarity and documented occurrence do not establish compound origin, binding affinity, behaviour or pest-control efficacy.

Secondary metabolites of bacterial origin are a valuable source of diverse molecules with antibacterial and anticancer activities. In the current study, 10 endosymbiotic bacteria were isolated from aphids, aphid predators and ants. Bacterial strains were identified based on the 16S rRNA gene. Crude extracts were prepared from each isolated bacteria and tested for their antibacterial activities using the disk diffusion method. The extracts of three bacterial species; Planococcus sp, Klebsiella aerogenes, Enterococcus avium from Aphis punicae, Chrysoperia carnea and Tapinoma magnum , respectively were found to have strong antibacterial activities against one or more of the five pathogenic bacteria tested. The inhibition zones ranged from 10.00± 0.13 to 20.00± 1.11mm with minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) values ranged from 0.156 mg/mL to 1.25 mg/mL. The notable antibacterial activity was for the crude extract of K. aerogenes against Klebsiella pneumonia and Escherichia coli at MIC value of 0.156 mg/mL. The cytotoxic activity of the crude extracts varied according to the tested cell line. The most cytotoxic effect was for the extracts of K. aerogenes and E. avium at a concentration of 0.16 mg/mL against lung carcinoma epithelial cells (A549) with cell reduction of 79.4% and 67.2%, respectively. Crude extracts of K. aerogenes and Pantoea agglomerans at a concentration of 0.16 mg/mL showed 69.4% and 67.8% cell reduction against human colon cancer (Hct116), respectively. Gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis of three crude extracts revealed the presence of several bioactive secondary metabolites that have been reported previously to possess antibacterial and anticancer properties. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to report the biological activities of endosymbiotic bacteria from aphids, aphid predators and ants. The promising data presented in this study opens a new avenue for alternative drugs to overcome the continuous emergence of multidrug-resistant bacteria and to find alternative drugs for traditional cancer therapies.