Natures wonders: raising larvae on putrefying corpses (Introduction)

by David Turell , Monday, October 15, 2018, 21:29 (2229 days ago) @ David Turell

The burying beetle stores up dead animals to use as food for their larvae. The problem is to prevent putrefaction and they have a solution:

https://phys.org/news/2018-10-beetle-larvae-carrion.html

"The burying beetle Nicrophorus vespilloides buries the cadavers of small animals in soil to use them as a food source for its offspring. However, the carcass and thus the breeding site are highly susceptible to microbial decomposition and putrefaction, resulting in the production of toxic substances, the growth of microbial pathogens and nutrient loss. In a new study, researchers from the Max-Planck-Institute for Chemical Ecology, the University of Mainz and the University of Giessen, Germany, show that Nicrophorus vespilloides beetles are able to replace harmful microorganisms with their own beneficial gut symbionts, thus turning a carcass into a nursery with a microbial community that even promotes larval growth.

" A team of scientists has now found that the burying beetle Nicrophorus vespilloides preserves the food source for its offspring by inoculating it with beneficial microbes from its own gut.

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"'Utilization of carcasses did not involve suppression of microbes, but the replacement of the native microbial community with the beetles' gut microbes. For example, tended carcasses showed suppression of a soil-associated mold but the growth of a beetle-associated yeast. This shift in microbial communities resulted in biochemical changes in beetle-tended carcasses," explains first author Shantanu Shukla from the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology.

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"'Our study shows how insects can modify their habitats by culturing their symbionts both in their guts as well as outside on a breeding resource to increase fitness. The burying beetle is a fascinating example of symbiont-enabled exploitation of challenging resources," senior author Heiko Vogel summarizes."

Comment: The microbiome of the beetle gut controls the putrefaction of the carrion. One can only wonder how the beetle discovered this method of feeding its larvae. Could they have been guided or did they accidentally poop on the carcasses with a lucky result?