The ambrosial forest pest Megaplatypus mutatus causes high economic losses in Argentina and has been classified as an emerging pest in Europe. The high diversity of susceptible tree-species (native and non-native) and its wide geographical distribution turn this ambrosial beetle into a serious threat to forest plantations. This work aimed to characterise the fungal communities associated with M. mutatus` gut, compare the current results with previous culture-dependent and independent datasets and test the specificity of the fungal communities among adults, larvae and host-plants. A total of 2200 fungal strains were isolated by culture method from Males, Females and Larvae from Populus deltoides, grouping them into eleven fungal taxa. Additionally, the larval gut was studied by culture-independent method (454-pyrosequencing) analysing P. deltoides and Casuarina cunninghamiana. The Principal Component Analyses showed a separation between fungal species within adults and larvae, strongly suggesting that males and Graphium basitruncatum association would be even more specific than previously reported. The use of complementary culture-methods, integrated into different scales of study, reflected an important biological complexity in the studied interaction, showing that the specificity in the Fungi-M. mutatus association is given by key-fungal members such as Fusarium solani species complex, Candida insectalens, G. basitruncatum and Raffaelea spp. The multitrophic interactions between M. mutatus and gut-associated fungi were assessed for the first time. These results complement the data from culture methods previously reported, thus improving the accuracy and understanding of the fungal assemblages associated with M. mutatus.

中文翻译：

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与巨嘴兽相关的真菌多样性的新见解：肠道菌群

菌类森林有害生物Megaplatypus mutatus在阿根廷造成了巨大的经济损失，在欧洲被列为一种新兴的有害生物。易感树种（原生和非原生）的高度多样性及其广泛的地理分布，使这种杂菌变成了对人工林的严重威胁。这项工作旨在表征与M. mutatus肠道相关的真菌群落，将当前结果与以前的依赖于培养物的数据集和独立的数据集进行比较，并测试成年，幼虫和寄主植物中真菌群落的特异性。通过培养方法从胡杨中的雄性，雌性和幼虫中共分离到2200株真菌。，将它们分为11个真菌类群。此外，还通过不依赖培养物的方法（454-焦磷酸测序）对幼虫的肠道进行了研究，该方法分析了P. deltoides和Casuarina cunninghamiana。主成分分析表明，成虫和幼虫中的真菌种类之间存在分离，这强烈表明雄性与Graphium basitruncatum的关联比以前报道的更为特异性。整合到不同研究规模中的互补培养方法的使用，反映了所研究相互作用中重要的生物学复杂性，表明真菌-M。mutatus关联的特异性是由关键真菌成员（如镰孢镰刀菌物种复合体）赋予的，念珠菌，G.basitruncatum和Raffaelea spp。首次评估了M. mutatus和肠道相关真菌之间的多营养相互作用。这些结果补充了以前报道的培养方法的数据，从而提高了对与突变支原体相关的真菌组合的准确性和了解。