Gut microbiota composition in the sympatric and diet-sharing Drosophila simulans and Dicranocephalus wallichii bowringi shaped largely by community assembly processes rather than regional species pool.

Abstract

Clarifying the mechanisms underlying microbial community assembly from regional microbial pools is a central issue of microbial ecology, but remains largely unexplored. Here, we investigated the gut bacterial and fungal microbiome assembly processes and potential sources in Drosophila simulans and Dicranocephalus wallichii bowringi, two wild, sympatric insect species that share a common diet of waxberry. While some convergence was observed, the diversity, composition, and network structure of the gut microbiota significantly differed between these two host species. Null model analyses revealed that stochastic processes (e.g., drift, dispersal limitation) play a principal role in determining gut microbiota from both hosts. However, the strength of each ecological process varied with the host species. Furthermore, the source-tracking analysis showed that only a minority of gut microbiota within D. simulans and D. wallichii bowringi are drawn from a regional microbial pool from waxberries, leaves, or soil. Results from function prediction implied that host species-specific gut microbiota might arise partly through host functional requirement and specific selection across host-microbiota coevolution. In conclusion, our findings uncover the importance of community assembly processes over regional microbial pools in shaping sympatric insect gut microbiome structure and function.