First Insight into Microbiome Profiles of Myrmecophilous Beetles and Their Host, Red Wood Ant Formica polyctena (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)—A Case Study

Abstract

Formica polyctena belongs to the red wood ant species group. Its nests provide a stable, food rich, and temperature and humidity controlled environment, utilized by a wide range of species, called myrmecophiles. Here, we used the high-throughput sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene on the Illumina platform for identification of the microbiome profiles of six selected myrmecophilous beetles (Dendrophilus pygmaeus, Leptacinus formicetorum, Monotoma angusticollis, Myrmechixenus subterraneus, Ptenidium formicetorum and Thiasophila angulata) and their host F. polyctena. Analyzed bacterial communities consisted of a total of 23 phyla, among which Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, and Firmicutes were the most abundant. Two known endosymbionts—Wolbachia and Rickettsia—were found in the analyzed microbiome profiles and Wolbachia was dominant in bacterial communities associated with F. polyctena, M. subterraneus, L. formicetorum and P. formicetorum (>90% of reads). In turn, M. angusticollis was co-infected with both Wolbachia and Rickettsia, while in the microbiome of T. angulata, the dominance of Rickettsia has been observed. The relationships among the microbiome profiles were complex, and no relative abundance pattern common to all myrmecophilous beetles tested was observed. However, some subtle, species-specific patterns have been observed for bacterial communities associated with D. pygmaeus, M. angusticollis, and T. angulata.

The microbiota of the Lasius fuliginosus – Pella laticollis myrmecophilous interaction

“…In turn, Fischer et al (2017) have shown that bacteria may contribute to the recognition of distant aphid species by Lasius niger ants (Fischer et al 2017). These results strengthen interest in studying the role of microorganisms in shaping relationships among closely associated species (Szenteczki et al 2019;Kaczmarczyk-Ziemba et al 2020).…”

“…The microbiota of Lasius fuliginosus and Pella laticollis 2019; Szenteczki et al 2019;Kaczmarczyk-Ziemba et al 2020)). In the present study, we have extended the state of the art regarding the microbiota of ants and their associates by investigating the potential similarities among the bacterial communities associated with two closely interacting species, L. fuliginosus and P. laticollis (both larvae and adults).…”

“…All the samples contained high abundances of Proteobacteria (up to 99.84% for the Pl-L1 profile), and Firmicutes (up to 23.58% for Lf-L3) ( Figure S1). These three phyla have frequently been listed among the most abundant groups of bacteria present in the microbiota of various insect species (Jones et al 2013;Yun et al 2014), including ants (Kellner et al 2015;Sapountzis et al 2015;Lanan et al 2016;Meirelles et al 2016;Vieira et al 2017;Łukasik et al 2017;Ramalho et al 2017a) and their associates (Liberti et al 2015;Ivens et al 2018;Szenteczki et al 2019;Kaczmarczyk-Ziemba et al 2020).…”

“…After extraction, the quantity and quality of the DNA were evaluated with a Nano Drop ND-1000 spectrophotometer (Nano Drop Technologies, USA). The extracted DNA was sent to the Genoplast Laboratory (Poland) for library preparation and 16S Miseq Illumina sequencing as described in (Kaczmarczyk-Ziemba et al 2019). Sequences of the V3-V4 region of the 16S rRNA gene were amplified using 341 F and 785 R primers.…”

“…For example, Pseudomonas species engage in cellulolytic, lipolytic, esterase, amylolytic and xylanolytic activities (Briones-Roblero et al 2017b), which appear to be necessary for honeydew digestion and wood maceration during nest building. In turn, Mycobacterium may impair the development of fungal infections in insects (Kabaluk et al 2017), an aspect especially crucial in the case of L. fuliginosus, as living in a social group may increase the risk of an epidemic outbreak. Entomopathogenic fungi, as well as their toxins, are natural threats to social insect colonies.…”