The microbes residing within the gut of an animal host often increase their own fitness by modifying their host's physiological, reproductive and behavioural functions. Whereas recent studies suggest that they may also shape host sociality and therefore have critical effects on animal social evolution, the impact of the gut microbiota on maternal care remains unexplored. This is surprising, as this behaviour is widespread among animals, often determines the fitness of both juveniles and parents, and is essential in the evolution of complex animal societies. Here, we tested whether life-long alterations of the gut microbiota with rifampicin-a broad-spectrum antibiotic-impair pre- and post-hatching maternal care in the European earwig. Our results first confirm that rifampicin altered the mothers' gut microbial communities and indicate that the composition of the gut microbiota differs before and after egg care. Contrary to our predictions, however, the rifampicin-induced alterations of the gut microbiota did not modify pre- or post-hatching care. Independent of maternal care, rifampicin increased the females' faeces production and resulted in lighter eggs and juveniles. By contrast, rifampicin altered none of the other 21 physiological, reproductive and longevity traits measured over the 300 days of a female's lifetime. Overall, these findings reveal that altering the gut microbiota with a large spectrum antibiotic such as rifampicin does not necessarily affect host sociality. They also emphasize that not all animals have evolved a co-dependence with their microbiota and call for caution when generalizing the central role of gut microbes in host biology.

中文翻译：

---

用广谱抗生素改变肠道菌群不会损害欧洲the的孕产妇保健。

驻留在动物宿主肠道内的微生物通常会通过改变宿主的生理，生殖和行为功能来增加自身的适应性。尽管最近的研究表明，它们也可能影响宿主的社会关系，因此对动物的社会进化有重要影响，但肠道菌群对孕产妇保健的影响尚待探索。这是令人惊讶的，因为这种行为在动物中很普遍，通常决定了少年和父母的适应性，并且在复杂的动物社会的发展中必不可少。在这里，我们测试了在欧洲amp中使用利福平（一种广谱抗生素损害孵化之前和之后的产妇护理）是否会终身改变肠道菌群。我们的结果首先证实了利福平改变了母亲的 肠道微生物群落，并表明鸡蛋护理前后肠道菌群的组成有所不同。然而，与我们的预测相反，利福平诱导的肠道菌群改变并未改变孵化前或孵化后的护理。独立于孕产妇护理，利福平增加了女性的粪便产量，并减轻了卵和幼鱼的重量。相比之下，在女性一生的300天中测得的利福平没有改变其他21个生理，生殖和长寿性状。总体而言，这些发现表明，用广谱抗生素（如利福平）改变肠道菌群并不一定会影响宿主的社交能力。