Gut bacterial communities in the ground beetle Carabus convexus

Tibor Magura*, Szabolcs Mizser, Roland Horvath, Maria Toth, Ferenc Sandor Kozma, Janos Kadas, Gabor L Lövei

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal/Conference contribution in journal/Contribution to newspaperJournal articleResearchpeer-review

Abstract

Biological interactions, including symbiotic ones, have vital roles in ecological and evolutionary processes. Microbial symbionts in the intestinal tracts, known as the gut microbiome, are especially important because they can fundamentally influence the life history, fitness, and competitiveness of their hosts. Studies on the gut-resident microorganisms of wild animals focus mainly on vertebrates, and studies on species-rich invertebrate taxa, such as ground beetles, are sparse. In fact, even among the species-rich genus Carabus, only the gut microbiome of two Asian species was studied, while results on European species are completely missing. Here, we investigated the gut bacterial microbiome of a widespread European Carabus species, targeting the V3 and V4 regions of the 16S ribosomal RNA genes by next-generation high-throughput sequencing. We identified 1138 different operational taxonomic units assigned to 21 bacterial phyla, 90 families, and 197 genera. Members of the carbohydrate-degrading Prevotellaceae family, previously not detected in ground beetles, were the most abundant in the gut microbiome of the carnivorous C. convexus. Presumably, individuals from the studied wild populations also consume plant materials, especially fruits, and these carbohydrate-degrading bacterial symbionts can facilitate both the consumption and the digestion of these supplementary foods.

Original languageEnglish
Article number612
JournalInsects
Volume15
Issue8
Number of pages13
ISSN2075-4450
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Aug 2024

Keywords

  • carabid
  • digestive tract
  • intestinal tract
  • microbiome
  • microorganisms
  • mutualism
  • operational taxonomic units
  • predators
  • symbionts

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