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

寄主植物、土壤和甲虫种类对长跳蚤甲虫（鞘翅目：叶甲科）微生物多样性的影响分析

• 批准号: 193767768
• 负责人: Professorin Dr. Susanne Dobler
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Department of Biology
• 依托单位国家: 德国
• 项目类别: Research Grants
• 财政年份: 2010
• 资助国家: 德国
• 起止时间: 2009-12-31 至 2013-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/193767768?language=en
• 关键词: Analysis; influence; host; plant; soil

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.

以植物为食的甲虫是地球上数量最多的生物之一。食草甲虫的爆炸性辐射在很大程度上是由植物中防御化合物的进化所驱动的。然而，人们对与这些昆虫相关的微生物群落知之甚少，也不知道它们如何影响甲虫的进化和对植物摄食的适应。基于蚤甲虫属（鞘翅目：金蝇科）现有的系统发育，我们将利用高通量微生物群落测序和实验宿主切换操作来探索微生物在草食性昆虫适应寄主植物中的作用。我们之前的研究结果证实了这些方法在测定昆虫微生物群落多样性方面是非常有效的。然而，他们对甲虫关系、环境（如幼虫的土壤栖息地）和寄主植物化学对肠道微生物群组成的相对影响持开放态度。在这里，我们提出了一个详细的调查寄主植物重叠的两个专业和一个通用的经树物种的寄主植物，土壤和种群的影响，以区分这些影响。这个项目将对微生物群落和它们的昆虫宿主之间的关系如何影响食草甲虫的进化多样化提供重要的见解。