Community analysis of gut microbiota in hornets, the largest eusocial wasps, Vespa mandarinia and V. simillima

Shota Suenami,Masaru Konishi Nobu,Ryo Miyazaki

doi:10.1038/s41598-019-46388-1

Abstract

Gut microbiota are important for various aspects of host physiology, and its composition is generally influenced by both intrinsic and extrinsic contexts of the host. Social bee gut microbiota composition is simple and highly stable hypothesized to be due to their unique food habit and social interactions. Here, we focused on hornets, the largest of the eusocial wasps – Vespa mandarinia and V. simillima. Unlike the well-studied honey bees, adult hornets are generally herbivorous but also hunt insects for broods, a unique behavior which could influence their gut microbiota. Analysis of the gut microbiome using 16S rRNA gene sequencing revealed that the two species have simple gut microbiota, composed of seven or eight consistently maintained ‘core’ operational taxonomic units (OTUs). While the two Vespa species shared some OTUs, the structures of their gut communities differed. Phylogenetic analysis indicated association of core OTUs with host diet. Intriguingly, prey honey bee gut microbes were detected in the V. simillima gut (and to a lesser extent in V. mandarinia), suggesting migration of microorganisms from the prey gut. This is the first report uncovering gut microbiome in hornets, giving additional insight into how food habit affects gut microbiota of social insects.

Highlights

Community analysis of gut microbiota in hornets, the largest eusocial wasps, Vespa mandarinia and V. simillima
These operational taxonomic units (OTUs) represented more than 91% of the observed OTUs for all samples (>95% for all samples except V. mandarinia University of Tokyo (UT)-5) based on alpha rarefaction analysis at a sampling depth of 12627 reads (Fig. S1)
All V. simillima samples harbored those OTUs at more than 1% relative abundance, except UT-3 exhibiting 0.72% (Fig. 7a). These results suggest that honey bee gut microbes are consistently found in the gut of V. simillima but not V. mandarinia

Summary

Introduction

Community analysis of gut microbiota in hornets, the largest eusocial wasps, Vespa mandarinia and V. simillima. Gut microbiota are important for various aspects of host physiology, and its composition is generally influenced by both intrinsic and extrinsic contexts of the host. Unlike the well-studied honey bees, adult hornets are generally herbivorous and hunt insects for broods, a unique behavior which could influence their gut microbiota. V. simillima gut (and to a lesser extent in V. mandarinia), suggesting migration of microorganisms from the prey gut This is the first report uncovering gut microbiome in hornets, giving additional insight into how food habit affects gut microbiota of social insects. Gut microbiota composition is influenced by several intrinsic and extrinsic contexts of the host animal, such as diet[3], physiological state[4], and genetic background[5,6]. A group of social insects in the order

Methods

Results

Conclusion