**2. What causes dysbiosis in the medfly gut microbiome?**

Gut symbionts are claimed to positively influence the development and ecological fitness of tephritidae. It could be through the provision of essential nutrients such as amino acids, vitamins, nitrogen, and carbon compounds [12–15], the suppression of pathogen establishment [2, 16, 17], the enhancement of host resistance to pesticides [18], or the mediation of mate selection [19]. As a result, dysbiosis of the gut microbiota has recently emerged as the cause of the sterile medfly males' low fitness. Indeed, these males face a variety of constraints during mass-rearing, treatment with ionizing radiation, and release conditions that favor minor bacterial genera such as *Providencia* and *Pseudomonas*, which are considered potential pathogens for the fly [16, 20]. The reduced fitness of released sterile males usually means that they are less competitive [21–23].
