Abstract
Simple SummaryIntestinal microbiota play crucial roles for their hosts. Odontolabis fallaciosa shows striking sexual dimorphism and male trimorphism, which represents an interesting system to study their gut microbiota. We have compared the intestinal bacterial community structure between the two sexes and among three male morphs of O. fallaciosa. The gut bacterial community structure was significantly different between males and females. The females were associated with higher bacterial alpha-diversity relative to males. Large males had a higher relative abundance of Firmicutes and Firmicutes/Bacteroides (F/B) ratio, which contributed to nutritional efficiency. The results increased our understanding of beetle–bacterial interactions of O. fallaciosa between the two sexes, and among three male morphs, which might reveal the relationship among the gut microbiota, nutrition level, and phenotypic evolution of the stag beetle.Odontolabis fallaciosa (Coleoptera: Lucanidae) is a giant and popular stag beetle with striking sexual dimorphism and male trimorphism. However, little is known about their intestinal microbiota, which might play an indispensable role in shaping the health of their hosts. The aim of this study was to investigate the intestinal bacterial community structure between the two sexes and among three male morphs of O. fallaciosa from China using high-throughput sequencing (Illumina MiSeq). The gut bacterial community structure was significantly different between males and females, suggesting that sex appeared to be the crucial factor shaping the intestinal bacterial community. Females had higher bacterial alpha-diversity than males. There was little difference in gut bacterial community structure among the three male morphs. However, compared to medium and small males, large individuals were associated with the higher relative abundance of Firmicutes and Firmicutes/Bacteroides (F/B) ratio, which might contribute to nutritional efficiency. Overall, these results might help to further our understanding of beetle–bacterial interactions of O. fallaciosa between the two sexes, and among the three male morphs.
Highlights
IntroductionThe intestinal microbiota of animals are composed of densely populated microbial assemblages [1]
The intestinal microbiota of animals are composed of densely populated microbial assemblages [1].The gut microbiota contributes to many necessary host functions, including increasing nutritional efficiency [2], improving host health [3], training the immune system [4], and regulating host physiology [5]
The one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed that the bacterial alpha-diversity of O. fallaciosa
Summary
The intestinal microbiota of animals are composed of densely populated microbial assemblages [1]. The gut microbiota contributes to many necessary host functions, including increasing nutritional efficiency [2], improving host health [3], training the immune system [4], and regulating host physiology [5]. The interaction between hosts and their gut microbiota significantly affects host behaviors [6,7]. Gut microbial community patterns are affected by a series of complex and dynamic interactions throughout life, including diet [10], age [11], gender [12], seasonal fluctuations [13], and genotype [14]. Empirical studies have intensively clarified intestinal microbial assemblages in vertebrates [1,15]
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