Profiling of Gut Bacteria Composition of Field-collected and Laboratory-adapted Population of Ostrinia furnacalis under Antibiotic Exposure

All living organisms harbor gut bacteria that play dynamic roles in their lives. Among them, the Asian corn borer (ACB), Ostrinia furnacalis , stands out as a destructive pest in maize plantations. Due to the limited research, antibiotic-feeding insects may serve as excellent models for experimental studies of gut microbiota dynamics. In this study, we combine antibiotic-feeding treatment with metagenomic analysis of the 16S rRNA gene to descriptively examine the composition and predicted functions of gut bacteria in O. furnacalis larvae. The antibiotic-feeding assays showed no detectable effect of antibiotics on the development of O. furnacalis. However, high-throughput sequencing revealed shift in gut bacteria composition following antibiotic treatment. In the F ₁ generation, antibiotic-treated larvae showed a reduction in Enterococcus , accompanied by a higher relative abundance of antibiotic-tolerance taxa; Achromobacter (24,08%), Burkholderia-Caballeronia-Paraburkholderia (24,47%), Ochrobactrum (19,70%), and Paenibacillus (18,33%). Whereas the control group remained dominated by Enterococcus (83,82%). In the F ₂ generation, of both groups exhibited relatively similar bacterial profiles, sharing more than 50% of amplicon sequence variants (ASVs). Principal coordinate analysis (PCoA) indicated separation between field-collected and laboratory-adapted populations. Furthermore, the functional gene prediction based on KEGG orthologs suggested enrichment of the ABC transporter-associated pathway in antibiotic-treated samples, potentially related to transport processes and xenobiotic responses. Overall, this descriptive study provides baseline insight into gut microbiome variability in O. furncalis under antibiotic exposure and highlights the need for future studies with biological replication to validate functional implications.