Comparison of gut bacterial communities of Drury (Lepidoptera, Arctiidae), based on 16S rRNA full-length sequencing.

There are a large number of microorganisms in the gut of insects, which form a symbiotic relationship with the host during the long-term co-evolution process and have a significant impact on the host's nutrition, physiology, development, immunity, stress tolerance and other aspects. However, the composition of the gut microbes of remains unclear. In order to investigate the difference and diversity of intestinal microbiota of larvae feeding on different host plants, we used PacBio sequencing technology for the first time to sequence the 16S rRNA full-length gene of the intestinal microbiota of . The species classification, β diversity and function of intestinal microflora of the 5 instar larvae of four species of feeding on apricot, plum, redbud and Chinese ash were analysed. The results showed that a total of nine phyla and 65 genera were identified by PacBio sequencing, amongst which Firmicutes was the dominant phylum and was the dominant genus, with an average relative abundance of 59.29% and 52.16%, respectively. PERMANOVA analysis and cluster heat map showed that the intestinal microbiomes of larvae, fed on different hosts, were significantly different. LEfSe analysis confirmed the effect of host diet on intestinal community structure and PICRUSt2 analysis showed that most of the predictive functions were closely related to material transport and synthetic, metabolic and cellular processes. The results of this study laid a foundation for revealing the interaction between the intestinal microorganisms of and its hosts and provided ideas for exploring new green prevention and control strategies of .