Department of Biology, Lund University, Ecology Building, Sölvegatan 37, 22362, Lund, Skåne, Sweden.
The Finnish Museum of Natural History, Luomus, Zoology Unit, The University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.
Sci Rep. 2021 Dec 30;11(1):24499. doi: 10.1038/s41598-021-03327-3.
Models estimate that up to 80% of all butterfly and moth species host vertically transmitted endosymbiotic microorganisms, which can affect the host fitness, metabolism, reproduction, population dynamics, and genetic diversity, among others. The supporting empirical data are however currently highly biased towards the generally more colourful butterflies, and include less information about moths. Additionally, studies of symbiotic partners of Lepidoptera predominantly focus on the common bacterium Wolbachia pipientis, while infections by other inherited microbial partners have more rarely been investigated. Here, we mine the whole genome sequence data of 47 species of Erebidae moths, with the aims to both inform on the diversity of symbionts potentially associated with this Lepidoptera group, and discuss the potential of metagenomic approaches to inform on host associated microbiome diversity. Based on the result of Kraken2 and MetaPhlAn2 analyses, we found clear evidence of the presence of Wolbachia in four species. Our result also suggests the presence of three other bacterial symbionts (Burkholderia spp., Sodalis spp. and Arsenophonus spp.) in three other moth species. Additionally, we recovered genomic material from bracovirus in about half of our samples. The detection of the latter, usually found in mutualistic association to braconid parasitoid wasps, may inform on host-parasite interactions that take place in the natural habitat of the Erebidae moths, suggesting either contamination with material from species of the host community network, or horizontal transfer of members of the microbiome between interacting species.
模型估计，多达 80%的所有蝴蝶和飞蛾物种都寄生着垂直传播的内共生微生物，这些微生物可以影响宿主的适应性、新陈代谢、繁殖、种群动态和遗传多样性等。然而，目前支持这一理论的经验数据严重偏向于通常更鲜艳的蝴蝶，而关于飞蛾的信息则较少。此外，对鳞翅目昆虫共生伙伴的研究主要集中在常见的细菌沃尔巴克氏体上，而对其他遗传共生伙伴的感染则较少被研究。在这里，我们挖掘了 47 种夜蛾科飞蛾的全基因组序列数据，旨在了解与该鳞翅目昆虫群相关的共生体的多样性，并讨论宏基因组方法在了解宿主相关微生物组多样性方面的潜力。基于 Kraken2 和 MetaPhlAn2 分析的结果，我们发现了明确的证据表明四种物种中存在沃尔巴克氏体。我们的结果还表明，另外三种其他细菌共生体（伯克霍尔德氏菌、索达利氏菌和放线菌）存在于另外三种飞蛾物种中。此外，我们在大约一半的样本中恢复了杆状病毒的基因组物质。后者的检测通常与 braconid 寄生蜂的互惠共生有关，这可能反映了在夜蛾科飞蛾的自然栖息地中发生的宿主-寄生虫相互作用，表明与宿主群落网络中的物种存在物质污染，或者微生物组成员在相互作用的物种之间发生水平转移。
