ArticlePloS one2014
Metamorphosis of a butterfly-associated bacterial community.
Article in PloS one, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 92 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
92 citing papers in PubMed, 177 citations in OpenAlex.
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- Life history drives the assembly of the bacterial community associated with the Horn fly, Haematobia irritans L. (Diptera: Muscidae).Archives of microbiology · 2026Article
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- The role of gut microbiota at different developmental stages in the adaptation of the Etiella zinckenella to a plant host.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Microbiome composition and turnover in the face of complex lifecycles and bottlenecks: insights through the study of dung beetles.Applied and environmental microbiology · 2025Article
- Elucidating the functions of gut microbiota from two edible dung beetle species: Implications for waste management and food industry.PloS one · 2025Article
- Microbiome analysis of monarch butterflies reveals effects of development and diet.FEMS microbiology ecology · 2024Article
- The species and abundance of gut bacteria both positively impact Phortica okadai behavior.Parasites & vectors · 2024Article
- Host genetics and larval host plant modulate microbiome structure and evolution underlying the intimate insect-microbe-plant interactions inEcology and evolution · 2024Article
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- Effects of developmental stages, sex difference, and diet types of the host marmalade hoverfly (Frontiers in microbiology · 2024Article
- Impact of intraspecific variation in insect microbiomes on host phenotype and evolution.The ISME journal · 2023Review
- Population Dynamics of IntestinalMicrobiology spectrum · 2023Article
- The Pathfinder plasmid toolkit for genetically engineering newly isolated bacteria enables the study of Drosophila-colonizing Orbaceae.ISME communications · 2023Article
- A phylogenomic and comparative genomic analysis of Commensalibacter, a versatile insect symbiont.Animal microbiome · 2023Article
- First Study on profiling of gut microbiome in wild and captive Sumatran orangutans (Veterinary world · 2023Article
32 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Butterflies are charismatic insects that have long been a focus of biological research. They are also habitats for microorganisms, yet these microbial symbionts are little-studied, despite their likely importance to butterfly ecology and evolution. In particular, the diversity and composition of the microbial communities inhabiting adult butterflies remain uncharacterized, and it is unknown how the larval (caterpillar) and adult microbiota compare. To address these knowledge gaps, we used Illumina sequencing of 16S rRNA genes from internal bacterial communities associated with multiple life stages of the neotropical butterfly Heliconius erato. We found that the leaf-chewing larvae and nectar- and pollen-feeding adults of H. erato contain markedly distinct bacterial communities, a pattern presumably rooted in their distinct diets. Larvae and adult butterflies host relatively small and similar numbers of bacterial phylotypes, but few are common to both stages. The larval microbiota clearly simplifies and reorganizes during metamorphosis; thus, structural changes in a butterfly's bacterial community parallel those in its own morphology. We furthermore identify specific bacterial taxa that may mediate larval and adult feeding biology in Heliconius and other butterflies. Although male and female Heliconius adults differ in reproductive physiology and degree of pollen feeding, bacterial communities associated with H. erato are not sexually dimorphic. Lastly, we show that captive and wild individuals host different microbiota, a finding that may have important implications for the relevance of experimental studies using captive butterflies.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.