The fall armyworm (FAW), Spodoptera frugiperda, is one of the most important invasive species and causes great damage to various host crops in China. In this study, the diversity and function of gut bacteria in the 5th instar larvae of FAW fed on maize, wheat, potato and tobacco leaves were analyzed through 16S rRNA sequencing. A total of 1324.25 ± 199.73, 1313.5 ± 74.87, 1873.00 ± 190.66 and 1435.25 ± 139.87 operational taxonomic units (OTUs) from the gut of FAW fed on these four different host plants were detected, respectively. Firmicutes, Proteobacteria and Bacteroidetes were the most abundant bacterial phyla. Beta diversity analysis showed that the gut bacterial community structure of larvae fed on different host plants was significantly differentiated. At the genus level, the abundance of Enterococcus in larvae fed on wheat was significantly lower than those fed on the other three host plants. Enterobacter and ZOR0006 were dominant in FAW fed on tobacco leaves, and in low abundance in larvae fed on wheat. Interestingly, when fed on Solanaceae (tobacco and potato) leaves which contained relative higher levels of toxic secondary metabolites than Gramineae (wheat and maize), the genera Enterococcus, Enterobacter and Acinetobacter were significantly enriched. The results indicated that gut bacteria were related to the detoxification and adaptation of toxic secondary metabolites of host plants in FAW. Further analysis showed that replication, repair and nucleotide metabolism functions were enriched in the gut bacteria of larvae fed on tobacco and potato. In conclusion, the gut bacterial diversity and community composition in FAW larvae fed on different host plants showed significant differences, and the insect is likely to regulate their gut bacteria for adaptation to different host plants.
Keywords: 16S rRNA; Spodoptera frugiperda; gut bacteria; host plant; invasive insect; toxic secondary metabolites.