Hello everyone and welcome back! This past weekend I went with some friends to a fruit and berry patch. Unfortunately we were too late in the year to pick any berries, and it was too early to pick peaches, so we bought some slushies and decided to take in nature by walking around the farm instead. Then we saw a fuzzy caterpillar going about its business. We didn’t interfere with the caterpillar along its journey, but I then thought, well…what sort of gut microbiome does a caterpillar have?
Seems as though researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder had the same question. Well, interestingly enough…apparently caterpillars don’t have much of one! The growing idea that all organisms have a gut microbiome doesn’t quite hold true for these guys…and a couple other organisms as well. When analysis of fecal/faecal content were done from caterpillars, then compared to other organisms, caterpillars had roughly 50,000 times less microbes present. This is huge! This stark difference has been described as comparing deserts to rainforests.
The microbes, more so DNA, they do find in caterpillars seems to be associated with that of the leaves they ingest, and their own. Caterpillars don’t seem to need the microbes they have, or rather, there is no consequence in development with or without them. Unlike termites that need to exist in symbiosis with Trichonympha to digest plant material, caterpillars don’t need such symbionts. Symbiosis describes the close and biological relationship between two different organisms. This relationship can be necessary or optional. It can also be beneficial to both, beneficial to one, or harmful to one of the organisms involved. If you are a student, can you research one other example of symbiosis?
It truly is interesting that with the 180,000 caterpillar species on the planet, if they don’t have a gut microbiome…well, what mechanism do they use for food digestion? This is quite new research, and Tobin Hammer, Melissa Whitaker and Jon Sanders are just a few researchers who are on the chase to find out more about this curious case about caterpillars.
Take care until next time! 🙂
See the following links for more on the caterpillar microbiome article, Nature news on caterpillar microbiome, symbiosis, and Trichonympha.
jtbtrinbagomicrobiologist 