Interspecific variation and functional traits of the gut microbiome in spiders from the wild: The largest effort so far

Abstract

Spiders being one of the most diverse group in phylum arthropod are of great importance due to their role as predators, silk producer, and in medicinal applications. Spiders in prey–predator relationships play a crucial role in balancing the food-chain of any ecosystem; therefore it is essential to characterize the gut microbiota of spiders collected from natural environments. In the present work, the largest effort so far has been made to characterize the gut microbiota of 35 spider species belonging to four different families using 16S amplicon targeting sequencing. Further, we compared the gut microbiota composition including endosymbiont abundance in spider species collected from different geographical locations. The results obtained revealed the presence of genera like Acinetobacter (15%), V7clade (9%), Wolbachia (8%), Pseudomonas (5%), Bacillus (6%). Although comparative analysis revealed that the gut bacterial composition in all the spider families has a similar pattern, in terms of community richness and evenness. The bacterial diversity in the spider family, Lycosidae are more diverse than in Salticidae, Tetragnathidae and Araneidae. Furthermore, it was observed that the abundance of endosymbiont genera, i.e. Wolbachia and Rickettsia, leads to shift in the abundance of other bacterial taxa and may cause sexual alterations in spider species. Moreover, predicted functional analysis based on PICRUSt2 reveals that gut microbiota of spider species were involved in functions like metabolism of carbohydrates, cofactors and vitamins, amino acids; biosynthesis of organic compounds, fatty acids, lipids etc. Based on the results obtained, it can be said that different locations do not correlate with community composition of gut microbiota in spider species collected from natural environments.

Diversity and Functionality of Bacterial Symbionts in Different Tissues of Spider Heteropoda venatoria Revealed through Integration of High-throughput Sequencing and Culturomic Approaches

“…Past studies focused on the endosymbiotic interactions between certain genera of bacteria and host reproductiove mechanisms, particularly Wolbachia, Rickettsia, Cardinium and Spiroplasma [47]. They found that Rickettsia and Wolbachia were the most common endosymbionts, even in spider gut [39,40].…”

Gut microbiota assemblages of generalist predators are driven by local- and landscape-scale factors

“…Few studies have been reported of the gut microbes of spiders (Kumar et al, 2020; Tyagi et al, 2021; Vanthournout and Hendrickx, 2015; Zhang et al, 2018, 2017), despite the foregoing range of factors that are likely to be drivers of spider performance as control agents of pests in crop systems. Accordingly, we employed 16S rDNA high-throughput sequencing to characterise the gut microbial assemblages of spiders sampled from brassica vegetable fields and evaluate the effects of local- and landscape-scale variables on taxonomic composition.…”

Differing Dietary Nutrients and Diet-Associated Bacteria Has Limited Impact on Spider Gut Microbiota Composition

“…Considering their complicated dietary regimens and diverse gut microbiota, spiders provide a suitable model to explore the degree to which diet or diet-acquired microbes impact the gut bacterial community. Many studies on microorganisms within spiders have focused on endosymbionts and their reproductive effects on their hosts [20][21][22], while other studies have identified and compared the gut microbiomes in different spider species [23][24][25][26]; analyzed the heritability of microbial communities within spiders [27]; and demonstrated that the gut microbiota of the spider Ariamnes waikula (Araneae, Theridiidae), which is found in the Hawaiian islands, to be fairly conserved for over 2 million years [28]. Although the existence of a common core microbiome in spiders remains elusive, gut bacteria in genera Acinetobacter, Pseudomonas, Bacillus are dominant and widely distributed in more than 40 spiders [23][24][25], while gut bacteria Staphylococcus, Corynebacterium, and Cutibacterium have varied abundance among the spiders.…”