title: The gut microbiota of the pine weevil is similar across Europe and resembles that of other conifer-feeding beetles.
abstract: The pine weevil (Hylobius abietis, Coleoptera: Curculionidae) is an important pest of conifer seedlings in Europe. Despite its economic importance, little is known about the composition of its gut microbial community and the role it plays in mediating the weevil's ability to utilize conifers as a food source. Here, we characterized the gut bacterial communities of different populations of H. abietis across Europe and compared them to those of other beetles that occupy similar ecological niches. We demonstrate that the microbial community of H. abietis is similar at higher taxonomic levels (family and genus) across locations in Europe, with Wolbachia as the dominant microbe, followed by Enterobacteria and Firmicutes. Despite this similarity, we observed consistent differences between countries and locations, but not sexes. Our meta-analysis demonstrates that the gut bacterial community of the pine weevil is very similar to that of bark beetles that also exploit conifers as a food source. The Enterobacteriaceae symbionts of both host taxa are especially closely related phylogenetically. Conversely, the microbiota of H. abietis is distinct from that of closely related weevils feeding on nonconifer food sources, suggesting that the microbial community of the pine weevil is determined by the environment and may be relevant to host ecology. Furthermore, several H. abietis-associated members of the Enterobacteriaceae family are known to contain genes involved in terpenoid degradation. As such, we hypothesize that the gut microbial community is important for the utilization of conifer seedlings as a food source, either through the detoxification of plant secondary metabolites or through the supplementation of essential nutrients.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry, Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, Hans Knöll Straβe, 07745 Jena, Germany.|Insect Symbiosis Research Group, Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, Hans Knöll Straβe, 07745 Jena, Germany.
authors.forename: Aileen
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Berasategui
authors.affiliation: Department of Organic Chemistry, KTH (Royal Institute of Technology), AlbaNova University Center, 106 91 Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: Karolin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Axelsson
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Lägerhyddsvägen 1, 751 21 Uppsala, Sweden.
authors.forename: Göran
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Nordlander
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry, Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, Hans Knöll Straβe, 07745 Jena, Germany.
authors.forename: Axel
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Schmidt
authors.affiliation: Department of Organic Chemistry, KTH (Royal Institute of Technology), AlbaNova University Center, 106 91 Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: Anna-Karin
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Borg-Karlson
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry, Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, Hans Knöll Straβe, 07745 Jena, Germany.
authors.forename: Jonathan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Gershenzon
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Lägerhyddsvägen 1, 751 21 Uppsala, Sweden.
authors.forename: Olle
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Terenius
authors.affiliation: Insect Symbiosis Research Group, Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, Hans Knöll Straβe, 07745 Jena, Germany.
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kaltenpoth
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001517:Coleoptera / Q000382:microbiology*; D017753:Ecosystem; D004755:Enterobacteriaceae / Q000302:isolation & purification; D005060:Europe; D000068536:Bacillota / Q000302:isolation & purification; D000069196:Gastrointestinal Microbiome; D028223:Pinus; D013559:Symbiosis; D048889:Weevils / Q000382:microbiology*; D020577:Wolbachia / Q000302:isolation & purification
keywords: Hylobius abietis; bark beetle; conifer; insect symbiosis; microbiota; terpenes