Carrion beetles in the genus Nicrophorus rear their offspring on decomposing carcasses where larvae are exposed to a diverse community of decomposer bacteria. Parents coat the carcass with antimicrobial secretions prior to egg hatch (defined as prehatch care) and also feed regurgitated food, and potentially bacteria, to larvae throughout development (defined as full care). Here, we partition the roles of prehatch and posthatch parental care in the transmission and persistence of culturable symbiotic bacteria to larvae. Using three treatment groups (full care, prehatch care only, and no care), we found that larvae receiving full care are predominantly colonized by bacteria resident in the maternal gut while larvae receiving no care are colonized with bacteria from the carcass. More importantly, larvae receiving only prehatch care were also predominantly colonized by maternal bacteria; this result indicates that parental treatment of the carcass, including application of bacteria to the carcass surface, is sufficient to ensure symbiont transfer even in the absence of direct larval feeding. Later in development, we found striking evidence that pupae undergo an aposymbiotic stage, after which they are recolonized at eclosion with bacteria similar to those found on the molted larval cuticle and on the wall of the pupal chamber. Our results clarify the importance of prehatch parental care for symbiont transmission in Nicrophorus vespilloides and suggest that these bacteria successfully outcompete decomposer bacteria during larval and pupal gut colonization.IMPORTANCE Here, we examine the origin and persistence of the culturable gut microbiota of larvae in the burying beetle Nicrophorus vespilloides. This insect is particularly interesting for this study because larvae are reared on decomposing vertebrate carcasses, where they are exposed to high densities of carrion-decomposing microbes. Larvae also receive extensive parental care in the form of carcass preservation and direct larval feeding. We find that parents transmit their gut bacteria to larvae both directly, through regurgitation, and indirectly via their effects on the carcass. In addition, we find that larvae become aposymbiotic during pupation but are recolonized apparently from bacteria shed onto the insect cuticle before adult eclosion. Our results highlight the diverse interactions between insect behavior and development on microbiota composition. They further suggest that competitive interactions mediate the bacterial composition of Nicrophorus larvae together with or apart from the influence of beetle immunity, suggesting that the bacterial communities of these insects may be highly coevolved with those of their host species.KEYWORDS Nicrophorus, parental care, symbiosis, microbiota, transmission A nimals are colonized by a diverse community of bacterial symbionts that play crucial roles in their ecology and evolution (1-3). This has been especially well studied in insects, whose bacterial symbionts can influence traits ranging from mate

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BackgroundNicrophorus vespilloides eggs are deposited into the soil in close proximity to the decomposing vertebrate carcasses that these insects use as an obligate resource to rear their offspring. Eggs in this environment potentially face significant risks from the bacteria that proliferate in the grave-soil environment following nutrient influx from the decomposing carcass. Our aims in this paper are twofold: first, to examine the fitness effects of grave-soil bacteria to eggs, and second, to quantify egg immunocompetence as a defence against these bacteria.ResultsOur results provide strong evidence that grave-soil microbes significantly reduce the survival of Nicrophorus eggs. Females provided with microbe rich carcasses to rear broods laid fewer eggs that were less likely to hatch than females given uncontaminated carcasses. Furthermore, we show that egg hatch success is significantly reduced by bacterial exposure. Using a split-brood design, which controlled for intrinsic differences in eggs produced by different females, we found that eggs washed free of surface-associated bacteria show increased survival compared to unwashed eggs. By contrast, eggs exposed to the entomopathogen Serratia marcescens show decreased survival compared to unexposed eggs. We next tested the immune competence of eggs under challenge from bacterial infection, and found that eggs lacked endogenous production of antimicrobial peptides, despite well-developed responses in larvae. Finally, we found that despite lacking immunity, N. vespilloides eggs produce an extraembryonic serosa, indicating that the serosa has lost its immune inducing capacity in this species.ConclusionsThe dependency on ephemeral resources might strongly select for fast developing animals. Our results suggest that Nicrophorus carrion beetles, and other species developing on ephemeral resources, face a fundamental trade-off between egg immunity and development time.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12862-014-0208-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Rapid climate and land-use changes have been considered as the foremost threat to global biodiversity. China contains more than 3500 threatened higher plants, whereas the relative influence of climate and land-use changes on these endangered plants have not been explored simultaneously under topographical constraints. Here, using Taxus plants as the case study genus, we simulated the distribution range of threatened species under three scenarios of current and future climate and land-use conditions under topographical constraints. We also measured the associated difference in the responses of Taxus species to climate and land-use changes. Our results demonstrated the substantial influence of climate and land-use changes on the distributions of Taxus species. However, we observed different responses of Taxus species to these environmental changes. The distribution range of T. cuspidate Siebold & Zuccarini and T. mairei Lemee & H. Léveillé would substantially shrink, whereas the habitat range of T. fuana Nan Li & R. R. Mill would sharply expand under RCP 8.5(Representative Concentration Pathway scenarios) scenario. Meanwhile, T. wallichiana Zuccarini and T. chinensis (Pilger) Florin would experience apparent range shifts. Furthermore, topographical factors played non-negligible roles in shaping species distributions, and modifying the influence of climate and land-use changes. Together, these results provide robust evidence that even threatened species will have multiple responses to climate and land-use changes (e.g., shrinking, expanding, shifting). Our findings highlight that taking species ecological traits, habitat characteristics, and topographical constraints into account might provide valuable insights into threatened species conservation in the face of global environmental changes.