Influence of host plants on the diversity of gut microbiota communities of Spodoptera frugiperda

The aim of the study is to evaluate the influence of different host plants on the diversity of gut microbiota communities of Spodoptera frugiperda( fall armyworm) reared in the laboratory. We hypothesized that host plants shape the gut microbiota of fall armyworm larvae. To test the hypothesis we investigated the microbial diversity of fall armyworm fed with nine different host plants using Illumina PE250 NovaSeq of 16S rRNA V3-V4 gene region. Our findings revealed that host plants is a major driver shaping insect gut microbiota .we discussed the variations in gut microbiota of larvae fed with the various host plants. We also discussed the functional roles of the identified microbiota.