Investigating Host Feeding Strategy as a Determinant of Insect Gut Microbial Community Profile at the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge, New Mexico

Diverse microbial communities live in the gut regions of animals. The precise ecological and evolutionary circumstances that govern relationships between hosts and their gut communities is unclear. In this study, we hypothesize that host feeding strategy shapes the microbial communities within the gut systems of insects. We collected five insect species from the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge that exhibited herbivorous, detritovorous and carnivorous diets. Using gut samples from the insects we measured if and how microbial communities are shaped based on any effect host feeding strategy might have. Preliminary analysis of bacterial communities using 16S rDNA sequences has thus far revealed that the sampled community profiles initially appear to show signs of being determined by host feeding type. Analysis has also shown that sequences from the phyla Firmicutes and Proteobacteria appear to contribute most significantly to the differences between communities of different feeding types. We expect that upon further data recovery, the extent of the effect host feeding type has on the communities will be clarified. Additionally we intend to incorporate bacterial community data from previous studies to further broaden our sample set. We expect our results to further define the ecological circumstances that shape the microbial populations within living systems.

多样的微生物群落栖息于动物的肠道区域。目前尚不明确调控宿主与其肠道群落之间关系的确切生态与进化机制。本研究提出假说：宿主的取食策略塑造昆虫肠道系统内的微生物群落。我们从塞维利塔国家野生动物保护区采集了5种昆虫，其取食习性涵盖植食性、食腐性与肉食性。我们以这些昆虫的肠道样本为材料，探究宿主取食策略是否会对微生物群落产生影响，以及具体的塑造机制。截至目前，基于16S核糖体DNA（16S rDNA）序列对细菌群落开展的初步分析显示，所采样的群落特征初步呈现出由宿主取食类型决定的迹象。分析还表明，厚壁菌门（Firmicutes）与变形菌门（Proteobacteria）的序列，是造成不同取食类型宿主肠道群落差异的最主要贡献因子。我们预期，随着后续数据的进一步完善，宿主取食类型对群落的影响程度将得到明确阐释。此外，我们计划整合既往研究中的细菌群落数据，以进一步扩充样本集。我们预期本研究结果将进一步明确塑造生命系统内微生物种群的生态机制。