Aoki Sayaka, Weaver Mikinley, Simmonds Tyler J, Shikano Ikkei, Geib Scott M, Mason Charles J
Tropical Pest Genetics and Molecular Biology Research Unit, Pacific Basin Agricultural Research Center, Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service, 64 Nowelo St. Hilo, HI, 96720, USA.
Department of Plant and Environmental Protection Sciences, College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources, University of Hawai'i at Mānoa, 3050 Maile Way, Gilmore Hall 513, Honolulu, HI, 96822, USA.
BMC Microbiol. 2025 Jul 28;25(1):455. doi: 10.1186/s12866-025-04025-0.
Insect gut microbiomes, including tephritid fruit flies, are shaped by multiple endogenous and environmental factors. While host species is a well-known driver of the gut microbiome of adult tephritids, the influence of sex is less clear. Our study evaluated the impacts of host sex and species influence the microbiome in laboratory-reared tephritids when controlled for location, time, and adult diet. We evaluated the gut microbiome of four lines of pest tephritid fruit fly adults (Bactrocera dorsalis, Bactrocera latifrons, Ceratitis capitata, Zeugodacus cucurbitae) using near full-length 16S rRNA sequencing with a PacBio Kinnex concatenation-based approach. We analyzed groups of males and females from each species at the same set of time, across four timepoints in a core insectary.
Results demonstrate a clear impact of fruit fly species on the gut microbiome composition of the different fruit flies. Furthermore, for B. dorsalis, B. latifrons, and C. capitata, we saw an influence of sex on ASV composition. However, while there was a separation of samples between the sexes for each timepoint, there was no characteristic male or female microbiome in all cases. The use of near full-length 16S rRNA sequencing did not have a marked improvement in beta-diversity interpretation over V4 subunit, with most detected taxa matching those described from other tephritids, but did allow for improved taxonomic classification at the genus level.
Our results demonstrate that under laboratory conditions, different fruit fly species still exhibit distinct microbiomes. The impact of sex did have an impact on the gut microbiome of some species, but the magnitude of effect differed between hosts. This indicates that the sex has some impact on structuring the gut microbiome, but in a case-by-case basis. While full-length 16S rRNA sequencing affords improved classification, our study did not indicate an improvement over partial-fragments on beta-diversity metrics.
昆虫肠道微生物群，包括实蝇科果蝇，受到多种内源性和环境因素的影响。虽然宿主物种是成年实蝇肠道微生物群的一个众所周知的驱动因素，但性别对其的影响尚不清楚。我们的研究在控制了地点、时间和成虫饮食的情况下，评估了宿主性别和物种对实验室饲养的实蝇微生物群的影响。我们使用基于PacBio Kinnex连接的方法对四种害虫实蝇果蝇成虫（橘小实蝇、宽额实蝇、地中海实蝇、瓜实蝇）的肠道微生物群进行了近全长16S rRNA测序。我们在核心昆虫饲养室的四个时间点，对每个物种的雄性和雌性群体在同一组时间进行了分析。
结果表明果蝇物种对不同果蝇的肠道微生物群组成有明显影响。此外，对于橘小实蝇、宽额实蝇和地中海实蝇，我们发现性别对可操作分类单元（ASV）组成有影响。然而，虽然每个时间点的样本在性别之间存在分离，但并非在所有情况下都存在特征性的雄性或雌性微生物群。与V4亚基相比，使用近全长16S rRNA测序在β多样性解释方面没有显著改善，大多数检测到的分类群与其他实蝇描述的分类群相匹配，但确实在属水平上实现了更好的分类。
我们的结果表明，在实验室条件下，不同的果蝇物种仍然表现出不同的微生物群。性别对某些物种的肠道微生物群有影响，但影响程度在不同宿主之间有所不同。这表明性别对肠道微生物群的结构有一定影响，但因情况而异。虽然全长16S rRNA测序提供了更好的分类，但我们的研究并未表明在β多样性指标上比部分片段有改进。
