Gut microbiota can be transmitted either environmentally or socially and vertically at intraspecific level; however, whether gut microbiota interact along trophic levels has been largely overlooked. Here, we characterized the gut bacterial communities of weevil larvae of Curculio arakawai that infest acorns of Mongolian oak (Quercus mongolica) as well as acorn-eating mammals, Siberian chipmunk (Tamias sibiricus), to test whether consumption of seed-borne larvae remodels the gut bacterial communities of T. sibiricus. Ingestion of weevil larvae of C. arakawai significantly altered the gut bacterial communities of T. sibiricus. Consequently, T. sibiricus fed larvae of C. arakawai showed higher capability to counter the negative effects of tannins, in terms of body weight maintenance, acorn consumption, N content in feces, urine pH, and blood ALT activity. Our results may first show that seed-borne insects as hidden players have a potential to alter the gut microbiota of seed predators in the tripartite system.

肠道微生物群可以在种内水平上通过环境或社会和垂直传播；然而，肠道微生物群是否沿着营养水平相互作用在很大程度上被忽视了。在这里，我们的特点的象鼻虫幼虫的肠道细菌群落栗arakawai是蒙古栎（的食尸鬼感染橡子蒙古栎）以及橡子食的哺乳动物，花鼠（Tamias芒），以测试是否种子携带幼虫的消费更新再造T. sibiricus肠道细菌群落。摄入C. arakawai的象鼻虫幼虫显着改变了T. sibiricus的肠道细菌群落。因此，T. sibiricus喂食的C. arakawai幼虫在体重维持、橡子消耗、粪便中的 N 含量、尿液 pH 值和血液 ALT 活性方面​​表现出更强的对抗单宁的负面影响的能力。我们的结果可能首先表明，作为隐藏参与者的种子传播昆虫有可能改变三方系统中种子捕食者的肠道微生物群。