Instar

Ecology

Bacteria

Biology

Brassica oleracea

Ceratitis capitata

Tephritidae

PEST analysis

Botany

Proteobacteria

16S ribosomal RNA

Larva

Genetics

Zoology

Capitata

Host (biology)

Alphaproteobacteria

Microbial ecology

Gammaproteobacteria

Mediterranean climate

PLoS ONE

Microorganisms are acknowledged for their role in shaping insects' evolution, life history and ecology. Previous studies have shown that microbial communities harbored within insects vary through ontogenetic development and among insects feeding on different host-plant species. In this study, we characterized the bacterial microbiota of the highly polyphagous Mediterranean fruit fly, Ceratitis capitata (Diptera: Tephritidae), at different instars and when feeding on different host-plant species. Our results show that the bacterial microbiota hosted within the Mediterranean fruit fly differs among instars and host-plant species. Most of the bacteria harbored by the Mediterranean fruit fly belong to the phylum Proteobacteria, including genera of Alphaproteobacteria such as Acetobacter and Gluconobacter; Betaprotobacteria such as Burkholderia and Gammaproteobacteria such as Pseudomonas.

Instar- and host-associated differentiation of bacterial communities in the Mediterranean fruit fly Ceratitis capitata