For a wide range of insect species, the microbiota has potential roles in determining host developmental programme, immunity and reproductive biology. The tea geometrid mothsEctropis obliquaandE. grisescensare two closely related species that mainly feed on tea leaves. Although they can mate, infertile hybrids are produced. Therefore, these species provide a pair of model species for studying the molecular mechanisms of microbiotal involvement in host reproductive biology. In this study, we first identified and compared the compositions of microbiota between these sibling species, revealing higher microbiotal diversity forE. grisescens. The microbiota ofE. obliquamainly comprised the phyla Firmicutes, Proteobacteria and Cyanobacteria, whereas that ofE. grisescenswas dominated by Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria and Firmicutes. At the genus level, the dominant microbiota ofE. grisescensincludedWolbachia,EnterobacterandPseudomonasand that ofE. obliquaincludedMelissococcus,StaphylococcusandEnterobacter. Furthermore, we verified the rate ofWolbachiato infect 80 samples from eight different geographical populations, and the results supported that onlyE. grisescensharbouredWolbachia. Taken together, our findings indicate significantly different microbiotal compositions forE. obliquaandE. grisescens, withWolbachiapossibly being a curial factor influencing the reproductive isolation of these species. This study provides new insight into the mechanisms by which endosymbiotic bacteria, particularlyWolbachia, interact with sibling species.

中文翻译：

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茶螟蛾Ectropis obliquaProut和E.grisescensWarren同胞菌群的比较特征

对于广泛的昆虫物种，微生物群在确定宿主发育程序、免疫和生殖生物学方面具有潜在作用。茶几何飞蛾斜眼虫和E. grisescens是两个密切相关的物种，主要以茶叶为食。尽管它们可以交配，但会产生不育杂种。因此，这些物种为研究微生物参与宿主生殖生物学的分子机制提供了一对模型物种。在这项研究中，我们首先确定并比较了这些同胞物种之间的微生物群组成，揭示了更高的微生物多样性E. grisescens. 的微生物群E. obliqua主要包括厚壁菌门、变形菌门和蓝细菌门，而E. grisescens以变​​形菌门、放线菌门和厚壁菌门为主。在属水平上，占优势的微生物群E. grisescens包括沃尔巴克氏体,肠杆菌属和假单胞菌属和那个E. obliqua包括蜜球菌,葡萄球菌和肠杆菌属. 此外，我们验证了沃尔巴克氏体感染来自 8 个不同地理人群的 80 个样本，结果支持仅E. grisescens窝藏沃尔巴克氏体. 总之，我们的研究结果表明微生物组成显着不同E. obliqua和E. grisescens， 和沃尔巴克氏体可能是影响这些物种生殖隔离的一个重要因素。这项研究为内共生细菌的机制提供了新的见解，特别是沃尔巴克氏体，与兄弟物种互动。