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Abstract:
Background Diet is a major determinant of bacterial community structure
in termite guts, but evidence of its importance in the closely related
cockroaches is conflicting. Here, we investigated the ecological drivers
of the bacterial gut microbiota in cockroaches that feed on
lignocellulosic leaf litter. Results The physicochemical conditions
determined with microsensors in the guts of Ergaula capucina,
Pycnoscelus surinamensis, and Byrsotria rothi were similar to those
reported for both wood-feeding and omnivorous cockroaches. All gut
compartments were anoxic at the center and showed a slightly acidic to
neutral pH and variable but slightly reducing conditions. Hydrogen
accumulated only in the crop of B. rothi. High-throughput amplicon
sequencing of bacterial 16S rRNA genes documented that community
structure in individual gut compartments correlated strongly with the
respective microenvironmental conditions. A comparison of the hindgut
microbiota of cockroaches and termites from different feeding groups
revealed that the vast majority of the core taxa in cockroaches with a
lignocellulosic diet were present also in omnivorous cockroaches but
absent in wood-feeding higher termites. Conclusion Our results indicate
that diet is not the primary driver of bacterial community structure in
the gut of wood- and litter-feeding cockroaches. The high similarity to
the gut microbiota of omnivorous cockroaches suggests that the dietary
components that are actually digested do not differ fundamentally
between feeding groups.
