The bacterial communities that colonize the cadaver environment of insects infected and killed by parasitic fungi can be selected by the sympatric fungi and provide novel impacts. In this study, we found that Bacillus cereus/thuringiensis predominate the bacterial community in Dolichoderus thoracicus ant cadavers colonized by O. pseudolloydii. The most predominant bacterial strains in these ant cadavers were hemolytic and able to produce hydrolytic enzymes for digesting the ant tissue. A relatively intense lethal effect on the co-cultured nematode was displayed by a hemolytic strain. Moreover, the antagonistic effect against pathogenic fungi detected in the bacteria sympatric with O. pseudolloydii was reported here. Naphthoquinones have been shown to confer antibacterial activities and produced by the ant-pathogenic Ophiocordyceps fungi. However, our results did not show the naphthoquinone tolerance we expected to be detected in the bacteria from the ant infected by O. pseudolloydii. The bacterial diversity in the samples associated with O. pseudolloydii infected ants as revealed in this study will be a step forward to the understanding of the roles playing by the microbial community in the native habitats of O. pseudolloydii.
Purpose: The bacterial communities that colonize the cadaver environment of insects infected and killed by parasitoid fungi can be selected by the sympatric fungi and provide novel impacts. Bacillus cereus/thuringiensis has previously been found to predominate the bacterial community in the Ophiocordyceps unilateralis sensu lato-infected ant cadavers in Taiwan. Methods: The bacterial communities were captured by a culture-dependent method from infected ant. We evaluate the biological properties and the possible impact of the predominant bacterial species on ant infection and examine bacterial growth in relation to the production of naphthoquinone derivatives. We further investigate the impact on ant infection by examining the bacterial species for biological properties related to host-killing, resource exploitation, and defense against possible invaders of the host cadaver.Result: We found a similar phenomenon in Dolichoderus thoracicus ants colonized by O. pseudolloydii. The predominant bacteria in these two ant cadavers were similar in the 16S rDNA barcoding sequences, and most of the strains were hemolytic and able to produce hydrolytic enzymes for digesting the ant tissue. Similar to that found in the O. unilateralis s. l.-infected ants, a relatively more intense lethal effect on the co-cultured nematode was displayed by a hemolytic strain. However, the naphthoquinone tolerance found in bacteria from O. unilateralis s. l.-infected ant cadavers was not detected in the bacteria of the ant infected by O. pseudolloydii. Moreover, the antagonistic effect against entomopathogenic fungi detected in the bacteria sympatric with O. pseudolloydii was not obvious against Aspergillus nomius, an ant pathogenic fungus infecting D. thoracicus. These two differences in the properties of the bacteria might be explained by the production of naphthoquinone, which has only been reported in O. unilateralis but not the other closely related fungi, and the bacteria from O. pseudolloydii-infected ants could be more adaptive to D. thoracicus ant cadavers.Conclusion: Through behavioral manipulation of the Ophiocordyceps fungi–ant parasitic associations, the bacterial diversity revealed in this study is a step forward in understanding the impact of microbial communities in parasitic life cycles.
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