qiime_study_1898
Bacterial community dynamics in the butterfly Heliconius erato
Butterflies are ecologically important and have long been used scientifically as model systems in ecology and evolutionary biology. They are also hosts to internal communities of commensal and presumably beneficial microorganisms, yet very little is known about their symbiotic microbiota, in contrast to the large and growing body of work on other groups of insects. Specifically, the adult microbiota has not been characterized, and it is unknown how it compares with that of the larval stage. We hypothesized that different life stages would contain unique bacterial communities that shift during metamorphosis; these communities may have roles in the distinct feeding biology of caterpillars and adults. To test this hypothesis, we used the butterfly Heliconius erato, which belongs to a genus unique among butterflies in its ability to feed on pollen and long adult lifespan. Using 16S rRNA sequencing, we found that caterpillars and adult butterflies host equally speciose, yet compositionally different bacterial communities, and that community structure is dynamic across host metamorphosis. Additionally, we found that captive butterflies are significantly different in bacterial community composition from wild-caught butterflies from the same population, with possible implications for microbial and other studies using captive or reared butterflies. Our findings provide a foundation for future experimental tests of symbiont function in this and other butterfly species, and suggest directions for broader surveys across butterfly taxa with different host plants and adult feeding biology.