Putative microbial defenses in a social spider: immune variation and antibacterial properties of colony silk

Keiser, Carl N.; DeMarco, Alexander E.; Shearer, Taylor A.; Robertson, Jessica; Pruitt, Jonathan N.

doi:10.1636/arac-43-03-394-399

Cited by 11 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 57 publications

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“…Test of AMA of solvent Keiser et al (2015) reported AMA from S. dumicola capture web dipped in 100% ethyl acetate, and we replicated this procedure to determine the amount of solvent adhering to the filter discs after dipping. We found that control filter discs absorbed 43 G 4 mg ethyl acetate when dipped in the solvent, whereas filters with silk wrapped around absorbed more than three times that amount of solvent (142 G 25 mg, Table S1), and consequently produced a larger inhibition zone (Figure 2A).…”

Section: Tests Of Amamentioning

confidence: 99%

The myth of antibiotic spider silk

et al. 2021

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Section: Tests Of Amamentioning

confidence: 99%

The myth of antibiotic spider silk

et al. 2021

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“…Spider silk may also act as a habitat filter for certain types of microbes, and thus only a subset of the available microbial communities is able to colonize. Indeed, both the retreat silk and capture web silk of S. dumicola have weak antibacterial effects against Bacillus thuringiensis [9] and the silk of other spiders has been shown to inhibit the growth of other bacteria [7]. At least a portion of the web-associated microbes could originate from the spiders themselves, which would similarly explain the large degree of overlap between samples collected from silk and from spider cuticles (see below; figure 2).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Spider webs are one of the most conspicuous animal-produced structures in nature, yet almost nothing is known about the potential for webs to harbour microbes, apart from some studies documenting the antimicrobial activity of isolated silk [7][8][9][10]. Social spiders live in dense aggregations and interact with prey, predators and parasites on a shared web [11,12].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Social spider webs harbour largely consistent bacterial communities across broad spatial scales

2019

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Social animals that live in domiciles constructed from biomaterials may facilitate microbial growth. Spider webs are one of the most conspicuous biomaterials in nature, yet almost nothing is known about the potential for webs to harbour microbes, even in social spiders that live in dense, long-term aggregations. Here, we tested whether the dominant bacteria present in social spider webs vary across sampling localities and whether the more permanent retreat web harbours compositionally distinct microbes from the more ephemeral capture webs in the desert social spider, Stegodyphus dumicola . We also sampled spider cuticles and prey items in a subset of colonies. We found that spider colonies across large spatial scales harboured similar web-associated bacterial communities. We also found substantial overlap in bacterial community composition between spider cuticle, prey and web samples. These data suggest that social spider webs can harbour characteristic microbial communities and potentially facilitate microbial transmission among individuals, and this study serves as the first step towards understanding the microbial ecology of these peculiar animal societies.

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“…Another potential explanation is that keystone individual's more readily transmit these bacteria to their shy colony-mates, thus depressing their task participation. Again, at odds with this interpretation, preliminary evidence suggests that shy S. dumicola exhibit stronger immunocompetence than their bolder colony-mates (Carl N Keiser, DeMarco, Shearer, Robertson, & Pruitt, 2015), so this remains an unlikely explanation for the depressed collective behaviour of colonies composed of mostly shy individuals. Unfortunately, the studies described herein were not designed to elucidate underlying mechanisms.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Increased bacterial load can reduce or negate the effects of keystone individuals on group collective behaviour

2016

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In many societies certain individuals play a central role in the execution of collective behaviours and group success, termed "keystone individuals". To date, most studies on keystone individuals have focused on their mere presence/absence and have failed to consider how their influence changes as a function of their condition or recent experiences. Here we explore how the influence of putative keystone individuals on group collective behaviour changes as a function of recent increases in cuticular bacterial load. In the spider Stegodyphus dumicola, individuals that exhibit the greatest "boldness" are important determinants of colony foraging behaviour and success. We topically exposed individual spiders that varied in their boldness to a combination of naturally-occurring cuticular bacteria (Bacillus thuringiensis, Microbacterium oxydans, Pantoea sp.) known to be harmful in S. dumicola, and then tracked the effects that this exposure had on their colonies' foraging and web-building behaviour. We found that colonies with unexposed keystones attacked prey more quickly and with more attackers than colonies in which the keystone was exposed to bacteria. Moreover, the relationship between keystone individuals' boldness and colonies' attack speed differed based on whether or not the keystone was recently exposed. The number of spiders that participated in nightly web-building was greater in colonies containing unexposed keystones than in colonies lacking a keystone, whereas colonies containing recently exposed keystones deployed an intermediate number of individuals. This trend, however, disappeared after the second night of observation. Together, our data suggest that a group's collective behaviour can be altered based on a single individual's recent experience with microbes.

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Putative microbial defenses in a social spider: immune variation and antibacterial properties of colony silk

Cited by 11 publications

References 57 publications

The myth of antibiotic spider silk

The myth of antibiotic spider silk

Social spider webs harbour largely consistent bacterial communities across broad spatial scales

Increased bacterial load can reduce or negate the effects of keystone individuals on group collective behaviour

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