Data from: Gut microbiota of dung beetles correspond to dietary specializations of adults and larvae

Vertebrate dung is central to the dung beetle life cycle, constituting
food for adults and a protective and nutritive refuge for their offspring.
Adult dung beetles have soft mandibles and feed primarily on nutritionally
rich dung particles, while larvae have sclerotized mandibles and consume
coarser dung particles with a higher C/N ratio. Here, using the dung
beetles Euoniticellus intermedius and E. triangulatus, we show that these
morphological adaptations in mandibular structure are also correlated with
differences in basic gut structure and gut bacterial communities between
dung beetle life stages. Metagenome functional predictions based on 16S
rDNA characterization further indicated that larval gut communities are
enriched in genes involved in cellulose degradation and nitrogen fixation
compared to adult guts. Larval gut communities are more similar to female
gut communities than they are to those of males, and bacteria present in
maternally provisioned brood balls and maternal ‘gifts’ (secretions
deposited in the brood ball along with the egg) are also more similar to
larval gut communities than to those of males. Maternal secretions and
maternally provisioned brood balls, as well as dung, were important
factors shaping the larval gut community. Differences between gut
microbiota in the adults and larvae are likely to contribute to
differences in nutrient assimilation from ingested dung at different life
history stages.