Gut bacterial and fungal microbiota of Ceratitis capitata

The Mediterranean fruit fly Ceratitis capitata Wied, is an agricultural pest of significant economic importance. This species has been globally managed using the Sterile Insect Technique. Insects, including tephritid flies, harbor a diverse gut microbiota that plays critical roles in their physiology, behavior, and overall fitness, suggesting that microbial communities may profoundly influence the biology of this pest. The aim of this study was to characterize the fungal and bacterial gut microbial communities of C. capitata from the Tucuman region in Argentina, and to assess their response to antimicrobial treatment using amplicon-based 16S rRNA gene and ITS region sequencing.