Ceratitis capitata gut metagenome. insect gut metagenome

The Mediterranean fruit fly (Ceratitis capitata) lays eggs in fruits where larvae subsequently develop, causing large scale agricultural damage. Within its digestive tract, the fly supports an extended bacterial community that is composed of multiple strains of a variety of enterobacterial species. Most of these bacteria appear to be functionally redundant with most strains sustaining diazotrophy or pectinolysis. At least some were shown to be vertically inherited but colonization, structural, and metabolic aspects of the community’s dynamics have not been investigated. We use fluorescent in situ hybridization, metabolic profiling, plate cultures and pyrosequencing to show that an initial, egg-borne diverse community expands throughout the fly’s life cycle.