Gut bacteria of weevil beetles developing on plant roots under extreme desert conditions. insect gut metagenome

The phytophagous insects in desert environments may evolve specific associations with gut bacteria to adapt the extreme low nutrient availability. As a first step to address this hypothesis, we conducted a systematic survey of bacterial communities in the gut of two weevils developing inside a mud chamber affixed to the roots of summer annual plants in the Negev Desert of Israel, based on 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing.