Army Ants Harbor a Host-Specific Clade of
            <i>Entomoplasmatales</i>
            Bacteria

Funaro, Colin F.; Kronauer, Daniel J. C.; Moreau, Corrie S.; Goldman-Huertas, Benjamin; Pierce, Naomi E.; Russell, Jacob A.

doi:10.1128/aem.01896-10

Cited by 68 publications

(101 citation statements)

References 55 publications

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“…However, previous studies (Funaro et al, 2011) have found that these bacteria are not always present in different subcastes within a single ant colony or different colonies from the same population, indicating that these microorganisms are not essential for the development of the host species. Nevertheless, in certain cases, there is specificity between associated bacteria and ant species.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 84%

“…and are known to be present in a number of ant species (Funaro et al, 2011;Ishak et al, 2011;Sapountzis et al, 2015). However, previous studies (Funaro et al, 2011) have found that these bacteria are not always present in different subcastes within a single ant colony or different colonies from the same population, indicating that these microorganisms are not essential for the development of the host species.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Bacterial Communities in the Midgut of Ponerine Ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae: Ponerinae)

Oliveira¹,

Ferro²,

Bacci³

et al. 2016

Sociobiology

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Symbiotic microorganisms are directly related to the ecological success of host insects, influencing many aspects of their biology. The present study is the first to investigate the microbiota associated with ants of the subfamily Ponerinae and aims to identify the bacterial midgut communities of Dinoponera lucida, Neoponera curvinodis, Pachycondyla striata, Odontomachus brunneus and Odontomachus bauri relied on culture-dependent technique, particularly 16S rRNA sequencing. The greatest species richness was observed in O. bauri, with 15 OTUs, followed by D. lucida with five OTUs, O. brunneus, with four OTUs, and N. curvinodis and P. striata, both with three OTUs. There were representatives of the phyla Actinobacteria, Proteobacteria, Tenericutes and Firmicutes, including the genera Bartonella, Mesoplasma, Mesorhizobium, Spiroplasma, Wolbachia and Serratia in the guts of the studied Ponerine ants. Spiroplasma and Mesoplasma were found to be prevalent in the studied ants and they were the only genera of bacteria found in more than one of the analyzed ant species suggesting they might be beneficial symbionts. The low microbial diversity observed given the predatory trophic habits of the species studied suggests that there is selection for these microorganisms, predominantly preserving symbionts with functional roles that are able to colonize this environment. It is also valid to infer that the identified bacteria are predominant in the gut and exhibit mutualistic functions that are important mainly for immunity, but also to reproduction and nutrition; moreover, a subset may be parasites that could have considerable impacts on the studied ants.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 84%

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bacterial Communities in the Midgut of Ponerine Ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae: Ponerinae)

Oliveira¹,

Ferro²,

Bacci³

et al. 2016

Sociobiology

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show abstract

“…Ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) are one of the most abundant animal groups (23,25), and microbial symbionts may have facilitated their evolution and diversification (29,55). Recent studies have found a range of putative symbionts in different ant lineages (22,27,28,30,49), and next-generation sequencing techniques are facilitating the endeavor to characterize the microbiome of such arthropod hosts.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Surveying the Microbiome of Ants: Comparing 454 Pyrosequencing with Traditional Methods To Uncover Bacterial Diversity

Kautz

Rubin

Russell

et al. 2013

Appl Environ Microbiol

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112

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We are only beginning to understand the depth and breadth of microbial associations across the eukaryotic tree of life. Reliably assessing bacterial diversity is a key challenge, and next-generation sequencing approaches are facilitating this endeavor. In this study, we used 16S rRNA amplicon pyrosequencing to survey microbial diversity in ants. We compared 454 libraries with Sanger-sequenced clone libraries as well as cultivation of live bacteria. Pyrosequencing yielded 95,656 bacterial 16S rRNA reads from 19 samples derived from four colonies of one ant species. The most dominant bacterial orders in the microbiome of the turtle ant Cephalotes varians were Rhizobiales, Burkholderiales, Opitutales, Xanthomonadales, and Campylobacterales, as revealed through both 454 sequencing and cloning. Even after stringent quality filtering, pyrosequencing recovered 445 microbe operational taxonomic units (OTUs) not detected with traditional techniques. In comparing bacterial communities associated with specific tissues, we found that gut tissues had significantly higher diversity than nongut tissues, and many of the OTUs identified from these groups clustered within ant-specific lineages, indicating a deep coevolutionary history of Cephalotes ants and their associated microbes. These lineages likely function as nutritional symbionts. One of four ant colonies investigated was infected with a Spiroplasma sp. (order Entomoplasmatales), a potential ant pathogen. Our work shows that the microbiome associated with Cephalotes varians is dominated by a few dozen bacterial lineages and that 454 sequencing is a cost-efficient tool to screen ant symbiont diversity.

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“…Various symbiotic bacterial communities have been described for several ant groups (e.g. Russell et al, 2009;Funaro et al, 2011). Symbiotic bacteria are mainly found in the guts that provide a suitable habitat for a wide range of microbes (Li et al, 2005;Stoll et al, 2007) and play essential roles in the success of herbivorous and fungivorous ants (Davidson et al, 2003;Pinto-Tomas et al, 2009;Russell et al, 2009).…”

Section: Microbial Pathogens Of Myrmica Antsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The worker ant surface can also provide a separate microbial niche, which for some ant species has a crucial role in providing antibiotics and fungicides (Little and Currie, 2007) or could generally contribute to protection against disease (Mueller, 2012). While such functional relationships are known for some bacterial groups, the function of many other groups is still poorly understood (Russell et al, 2009;Funaro et al, 2011) and virtually unknown in Myrmica ants.…”

Section: Microbial Pathogens Of Myrmica Antsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Myrmica ants host highly diverse parasitic communities: from social parasites to microbes

2014

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Myrmica ants have been model species for studies in a variety of disciplines, including insect physiology, chemical communication, ant social dynamics, ant population, community ecology, and ant interactions with other organisms. Species belonging to the genus Myrmica can be found in virtually every habitat within the temperate regions of the northern hemisphere and their biology and systematics have been thoroughly studied. These ants serve as hosts to highly diverse parasitic organisms from socially parasitic butterfly caterpillars to microbes, and many Myrmica species even evolved into parasitizing species of their own genus. These parasites have various impacts both on the individuals and on the social structure of their hosts, ranging from morphological malformations to reduction in colony fitness. A comprehensive review of the parasitic organisms supported by Myrmica and the effects of these organisms on individuals and on whole ant colonies has not yet been compiled. Here, we provide a review of the interactions of these organisms with Myrmica ants by discussing host and parasite functional, behavioral or physiological adaptations. In addition, for all "symbiont groups" of Myrmica ants described in this paper, we examine the present limitations of the knowledge at present of their impact on individuals and host colony fitness. In conclusion, we argue that Myrmica ants serve as remarkable resource for the evolution of a wide variety of associated organisms.

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Army Ants Harbor a Host-Specific Clade of Entomoplasmatales Bacteria

Cited by 68 publications

References 55 publications

Bacterial Communities in the Midgut of Ponerine Ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae: Ponerinae)

Bacterial Communities in the Midgut of Ponerine Ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae: Ponerinae)

Surveying the Microbiome of Ants: Comparing 454 Pyrosequencing with Traditional Methods To Uncover Bacterial Diversity

Myrmica ants host highly diverse parasitic communities: from social parasites to microbes

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