2. Academic Validation
  3. The digestive and defensive basis of carcass utilization by the burying beetle and its microbiota

The digestive and defensive basis of carcass utilization by the burying beetle and its microbiota

  • Nat Commun. 2017 May 9:8:15186. doi: 10.1038/ncomms15186.
Heiko Vogel 1,  Shantanu P Shukla 1 2,  Tobias Engl 2 3,  Benjamin Weiss 2 3,  Rainer Fischer 4,  Sandra Steiger 5,  David G Heckel 1,  Martin Kaltenpoth 2 3,  Andreas Vilcinskas 6
Affiliations

Affiliations

  • 1 Department of Entomology, Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, D-07745 Jena, Germany.
  • 2 Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, Research Group Insect Symbiosis, D-07745 Jena, Germany.
  • 3 Department for Evolutionary Ecology, Johannes Gutenberg University, D-55128 Mainz, Germany.
  • 4 Fraunhofer Institute for Molecular Biology and Applied Ecology (IME), D-52074 Aachen, Germany.
  • 5 University of Ulm, Institute of Evolutionary Ecology and Conservation Genomics, D-89081 Ulm, Germany.
  • 6 Institute for Insect Biotechnology, Justus Liebig University of Giessen, D-35392 Giessen, Germany.
PMID: 28485370 DOI: 10.1038/ncomms15186
Abstract

Insects that use ephemeral resources must rapidly digest nutrients and simultaneously protect them from competitors. Here we use burying beetles (Nicrophorus vespilloides), which feed their offspring on vertebrate carrion, to investigate the digestive and defensive basis of carrion utilization. We characterize gene expression and microbiota composition in the gut, anal secretions, and on carcasses used by the beetles. We find a strict functional compartmentalization of the gut involving differential expression of immune effectors (antimicrobial peptides and lysozymes), as well as digestive and detoxifying Enzymes. A distinct microbial community composed of Firmicutes, Proteobacteria and a clade of ascomycetous yeasts (genus Yarrowia) is present in larval and adult guts, and is transmitted to the carcass via anal secretions, where the yeasts express extracellular digestive Enzymes and produce antimicrobial compounds. Our results provide evidence of potential metabolic cooperation between the host and its microbiota for digestion, detoxification and defence that extends from the beetle's gut to its nutritional resource.

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