Analysis of the influence of host plant, soil and beetle species on microbial diversity in Longitarsus flea beetles (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae)

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Plant-feeding beetles comprise one of the most abundant groups of organisms on Earth. The explosive radiation of herbivorous beetles has been driven largely by the evolution of defensive compounds in plants. Yet, little is known about the microbial communities associated with these insects or how they affect beetle evolution and adaptation to plant-feeding. Based on an existing phylogeny of the flea-beetle genus Longitarsus (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae), we will use highthroughput microbial community sequencing, and experimental host-switching manipulation to explore the role microbes play in the adaptation of herbivorous insects to their host plants. Our previous results confirmed that the methods are highly effective at determining the insects' microbial community diversity. However, they left open the relative impact of the beetle relationship, the environment (e.g. larval soil habitat) and host plant chemistry on the composition of the gut microbiota. Here we propose a detailed investigation of host plant, soil and population effects in two specialist and one generalist Longitarsus species with overlapping host plants to differentiate among these effects. This project will lend critical insight into how the relationship between microbial communities and their insect hosts may have shaped the evolutionary diversification of herbivorous beetles.