DOI: 10.5061/dryad.m63xsj49s
title: Data from: Microbial transfer through fecal strings on eggs affect leaf beetle microbiome dynamics

description: Gut microbiomes of holometabolous insects can be strongly affected by the
 metamorphosis. Previous studies suggest that microbiome colonization and
 community development often rely on specialized transmission routes
 between host life stages, but there is a lack of comparative studies of
 microbial community dynamics due to different transmission mechanisms. We
 compared the gut microbial community dynamics across life stages for five
 Galerucella species that differ in a potential microbial transfer
 mechanism by sequencing amplicons of the 16S rRNA gene. Females of three
 of the studied species place fecal strings on top of the egg, which may
 improve the transfer of gut microbes, unlike females of the two other
 species. We found the α-diversity was more stable between life stages in
 fecal string placer-species compared with the non-fecal string
 placer-species. Moreover, there were consistent differences in the
 microbiome between species, where we identified multiple taxa in each
 species that consistently appeared in all life stages. Therefore, fecal
 strings placed on eggs seem to play an important role in the diversity and
 dynamic of gut bacteria in Galerucella species, and the vertical transfer
 of gut bacteria between host insect generations. Alternative, but less
 efficient, transmission routes seem to occur in non-fecal string
 placer-species.
description: # Data from: Microbial transfer through fecal strings on eggs affect leaf
 beetle microbiome dynamics Data for microbial communities in five
 Galerucella leaf beetles, across 5 life stages (eggs, newly hatched
 larvae, three-week old larvae, pupae and newly hatched adults), based on
 sequencing of the V3-V4 hypervariable 128 regions (480 bp) of the 16S rRNA
 gene. Host beetle species include G. lineola (Fabricius, 1781), G. pusilla
 (Duftschmid, 1825), G. calmariensis (L., 1767), G. nymphaea (L., 1758) and
 G. sagittariae (Gyllenhal, 1813). They differ in one key trait. Females of
 G. lineola, G. pusilla and G. calmariensis deposit a fecal string on the
 egg whereas G. nymphaea and G. sagittariae do not. ## Description of the
 data and file structure The data includes four files: ASV table – This
 file contains the number of reads for each ASV (column A, N=9661) across
 all included Sample ID #201-386 (N=172, Column B-FQ). ASV’s from
 mitochondria and chloroplasts are excluded. Identities of ASV can be found
 in Taxa table.xls, and Sample ID's are found in Metadata.xls Metadata
 – Sample descriptions (Sample ID, Beetle species, Life stages, Whether
 females deposit a fecal string). Life stages include eggs, newly hatched
 larvae, three week old larvae, pupae and adult beetles. Taxa table – ASV
 identities (ASV#, Domain, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species,
 N=9661) based on the annotated SILVA 147 138 SSU 16S rRNA reference
 database ([www.arb-silva.de](http://www.arb-silva.de)). ASV’s from
 mitochondria and chloroplasts are excluded. NA = not available. Sequence
 table – Representative sequences for all ASVs (ASV ID #1-9986), including
 those from mitochondria and chloroplasts.