Gut microbial communities associated with phenotypically divergent populations of the striped stem borer Chilo suppressalis

Abstract

Chilo suppressalis is a serious stem borer of rice and water-oat, however, little is known about the effect of diet and gut compartments on the gut microbial communities of this species. We analyzed the microbial communities in phenotypically divergent populations of C. suppressalis. In original and cross-rearing populations, the most dominant phyla were Proteobacteria (16.0% to 96.4%) and Firmicutes (2.3% to 78.9%); the most abundant family were Enterobacteriaceae (8.0% to 78%), followed by Enterococcaceae (1.7% to 64.2%) and Halomonadaceae (0.3% to 69.8%). The genera distribution showed great differences due to diet types and gut compartments. The fewest microbial species were shared by original populations, whereas the highest bacteria diversity was found for midgut of rice population feeding on water-oat. The bacterial communities in the midgut were more diverse than those in the hindgut. A comparison among phenotypically divergent populations of C. suppressalis shows that gut microbial communities vary with diet types and gut compartment.