Microbial profiling of native and alien Drosophila in French Guiana reveals candidate taxa potentially affecting invasion dynamics.
Invasive alien species (IAS) represent a major threat to biodiversity, human health, and economy. Yet the role of host-associated microbiomes in invasion processes remains poorly understood in natural systems. Here, we investigated the bacterial and fungal microbiomes of IAS and native Drosophila species collected along an anthropization gradient in French Guiana. Analyses of Drosophila communities revealed that IAS establishment is limited outside coastal habitats. Using bacterial 16S rRNA and fungal ITS metabarcoding of pooled individuals, we assessed microbial diversity, composition, and structure across host species, host category (invasive vs. native), and locality. Bacterial communities associated with IAS harboured reduced alpha diversity and distinct community structure compared to native Drosophila species, and host phylogenetic relatedness and locality also contributed to bacteriome variation. In contrast, fungal communities were mainly structured by locality and host species. We further identified core and exclusive taxa, compared bacteriome composition between native and IAS hosts using global reference datasets, and integrated information from the microbiome literature. This approach led to the identification of 45 bacterial and fungal candidate taxa potentially associated with host adaptation or competitiveness across coastal and rainforest environments. Overall, our results highlight microbiome variation as a potential component of invasion dynamics in Neotropical Drosophila.