Larval diets used for artificial rearing can have a significant effect on insect biology. The Queensland fruit fly (aka “Qfly”), Bactrocera tryoni (Froggatt) (Diptera: Tephritidae), is one of the greatest challenges for fruit growers in Australia. The sterile insect technique (SIT) is being developed to manage outbreaks in regions that remain free of Qfly and to reduce populations in regions where this species is endemic. Factory scale rearing is essential for SIT; however, artificial larval diets are known to affect the microbiome of Qfly, which may then affect fly performance. In this study, high-throughput Illumina sequencing was used to assess the Qfly microbiome in colonies reared, for five generations from nature, on two common artificial diets (carrot and gel). At generation five (G5), the microbiome was assessed in larvae, pupae, adult males and adult females and standard fly quality control parameters were assessed together with additional performance measures of mating propensity and survival under nutritional stress. At the genus level, bacterial communities were significantly different between the colonies reared on the two larval diets. However, communities converged at Phyla to family taxonomic levels. Bacterial genera of Morganella, Citrobacter, Providencia, and Burkholderia were highly abundant in all developmental stages of Qfly reared on the gel diet, when compared to the carrot diet. Despite abundance of these genera, a greater percentage of egg hatching, heavier pupal weight and a higher percentage of fliers were found in the Qfly reared on the gel diet. Mating propensity and survival under nutritional stress was similar for adult Qfly that had been reared on the two larval diets. Overall, our findings demonstrate that the artificial larval diet strongly influences the microbiome and quality control measures of Qfly, with likely downstream effects on performance of flies released in SIT programs.

用于人工饲养的幼虫饮食可对昆虫生物学产生重大影响。昆士兰果蝇（又名“ Qfly”），试管杆菌（Froggatt）（Diptera：Tephritidae），是澳大利亚水果种植者面临的最大挑战之一。正在开发不育昆虫技术（SIT），以管理仍然没有Qfly的地区的暴发并减少该物种特有地区的种群。工厂规模的饲养对于SIT至关重要。但是，已知人工幼虫饮食会影响Qfly的微生物组，进而可能影响果蝇的性能。在这项研究中，高通量Illumina测序用于评估在两种常见的人工饮食（胡萝卜和凝胶）下自然饲养五代后的菌落中的Qfly微生物组。在第5代（G5）时，对幼虫，p，评估成年雄性和成年雌性以及标准果蝇质量控制参数，以及在营养压力下交配倾向和存活的其他性能指标。在属水平上，两种幼虫饮食饲养的菌落之间的细菌群落显着不同。但是，社区在Phyla达到了家庭分类标准。细菌属Morganella，柠檬酸杆菌，普罗维登西亚和 伯克霍尔德氏菌与胡萝卜饮食相比，在凝胶饮食中饲养的Qfly的所有发育阶段都高度丰富。尽管这些属很多，但在凝胶饮食中饲养的Qfly中发现了较高的卵孵化率，较重的p重量和较高的飞行物率。在两种幼虫饮食中饲养的成年Qfly的交配倾向和在营养压力下的存活率相似。总体而言，我们的发现表明，人工幼虫饮食强烈影响Qfly的微生物组和质量控制措施，并可能对SIT计划中释放的果蝇的性能产生下游影响。