Persistence of the ground beetle (Coleoptera: Carabidae) microbiome to diet manipulation

Abstract

Host-associated microbiomes can play important roles in the ecology and evolution of their insect hosts, but bacterial diversity in many insect groups remains poorly understood. Here we examine the relationship between host environment, host traits, and microbial diversity in three species in the ground beetle family (Coleoptera: Carabidae), a group of roughly 40,000 species that synthesize a wide diversity of defensive compounds. This study found that the ground beetle microbiome is consistent across different host food sources. We used 16S amplicon sequencing to profile three species that are phylogenetically distantly related, trophically distinct, and whose defensive chemical secretions differ: Anisodactylus similis LeConte, 1851, Pterostichus serripes (LeConte, 1875), and Brachinus elongatulus Chaudoir, 1876. Wild-caught beetles were compared to individuals maintained in the lab for two weeks on carnivorous, herbivorous, or starvation diets. Soil environment but not diet had a significant effect on bacterial diversity and composition. The three carabid species have patterns of microbial diversity similar to those previously found in other insect hosts. Metagenomic samples from two highly active tissue types -- guts, and pygidial gland secretory cells (which produce defensive compounds) -- were processed and sequenced separately from those of the remaining body. The observed similarity of the pygidial gland secretory cell microbiome across hosts suggests the possibility that it may be a conserved community, possibly due to functional interactions related to defensive chemistry. These results provide a baseline for future studies of the role of microbes in the diversification of defensive chemical biosynthesis in carabids.