Ceratitis capitata intestinal microbiota Raw sequence reads
The fruit fly Ceratitis capitata is an invasive pest responsible for significant losses in fruit production and marketing worldwide. Control of this pest using entomopathogenic fungi, such as Purpureocillium lilacinum, is well documented, but such treatments can disrupt the insect physiology. This study investigated the effect of fungal inoculation on the diversity and abundance of the gut microbiota in adult C. capitata. The results show that non-axenic flies (with gut microbiota) have a shorter lifespan after infection compared to axenic flies. Additionally, the infection leads to a significant decrease in the abundance of 11 bacterial genera and an increase in 3 others, indicating a major disruption of the gut microbial balance.