title: Insect gut bacterial diversity determined by environmental habitat, diet, developmental stage, and phylogeny of host.
abstract: Insects are the most abundant animals on Earth, and the microbiota within their guts play important roles by engaging in beneficial and pathological interactions with these hosts. In this study, we comprehensively characterized insect-associated gut bacteria of 305 individuals belonging to 218 species in 21 taxonomic orders, using 454 pyrosequencing of 16S rRNA genes. In total, 174,374 sequence reads were obtained, identifying 9,301 bacterial operational taxonomic units (OTUs) at the 3% distance level from all samples, with an average of 84.3 (± 97.7) OTUs per sample. The insect gut microbiota were dominated by Proteobacteria (62.1% of the total reads, including 14.1% Wolbachia sequences) and Firmicutes (20.7%). Significant differences were found in the relative abundances of anaerobes in insects and were classified according to the criteria of host environmental habitat, diet, developmental stage, and phylogeny. Gut bacterial diversity was significantly higher in omnivorous insects than in stenophagous (carnivorous and herbivorous) insects. This insect-order-spanning investigation of the gut microbiota provides insights into the relationships between insects and their gut bacterial communities.
authors.affiliation: Department of Life and Nanopharmaceutical Sciences and Department of Biology, Kyung Hee University, Seoul, South Korea.
authors.forename: Ji-Hyun
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Yun
authors.affiliation: Department of Life and Nanopharmaceutical Sciences and Department of Biology, Kyung Hee University, Seoul, South Korea Jeju Center, Korea Basic Science Institute, Jeju, South Korea.
authors.forename: Seong Woon
authors.initials: SW
authors.lastname: Roh
authors.affiliation: Department of Life and Nanopharmaceutical Sciences and Department of Biology, Kyung Hee University, Seoul, South Korea.
authors.forename: Tae Woong
authors.initials: TW
authors.lastname: Whon
authors.affiliation: Department of Life and Nanopharmaceutical Sciences and Department of Biology, Kyung Hee University, Seoul, South Korea.
authors.forename: Mi-Ja
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Jung
authors.affiliation: Department of Life and Nanopharmaceutical Sciences and Department of Biology, Kyung Hee University, Seoul, South Korea.
authors.forename: Min-Soo
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Biological Resource Center, Korea Research Institute of Bioscience & Biotechnology, Daejeon, South Korea.
authors.forename: Doo-Sang
authors.initials: DS
authors.lastname: Park
authors.affiliation: Jeju Center, Korea Basic Science Institute, Jeju, South Korea.
authors.forename: Changmann
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Yoon
authors.affiliation: Department of Life and Nanopharmaceutical Sciences and Department of Biology, Kyung Hee University, Seoul, South Korea.
authors.forename: Young-Do
authors.initials: YD
authors.lastname: Nam
authors.affiliation: Department of Life and Nanopharmaceutical Sciences and Department of Biology, Kyung Hee University, Seoul, South Korea.
authors.forename: Yun-Ji
authors.initials: YJ
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Department of Life and Nanopharmaceutical Sciences and Department of Biology, Kyung Hee University, Seoul, South Korea.
authors.forename: Jung-Hye
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Choi
authors.affiliation: Department of Life and Nanopharmaceutical Sciences and Department of Biology, Kyung Hee University, Seoul, South Korea.
authors.forename: Joon-Yong
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Department of Life and Nanopharmaceutical Sciences and Department of Biology, Kyung Hee University, Seoul, South Korea.
authors.forename: Na-Ri
authors.initials: NR
authors.lastname: Shin
authors.affiliation: School of Biological Science, Seoul National University, and National Creative Research Initiative Center for Symbiosystem, Seoul, South Korea.
authors.forename: Sung-Hee
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: School of Biological Science, Seoul National University, and National Creative Research Initiative Center for Symbiosystem, Seoul, South Korea.
authors.forename: Won-Jae
authors.initials: WJ
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Department of Life and Nanopharmaceutical Sciences and Department of Biology, Kyung Hee University, Seoul, South Korea baejw@khu.ac.kr.
authors.forename: Jin-Woo
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Bae
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D044822:Biodiversity; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D004275:DNA, Ribosomal / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D004032:Diet; D017753:Ecosystem; D041981:Gastrointestinal Tract / Q000382:microbiology; D007313:Insecta / Q000382:microbiology* / Q000502:physiology; D008018:Life Cycle Stages; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S / Q000235:genetics; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA
chemical_list: D004269:DNA, Bacterial; D004275:DNA, Ribosomal; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S