The microbiome of the ant‐built home: the microbial communities of a tropical arboreal ant and its nest

Lucas, Jane M.; Bill, Brian D.; Stevenson, Bradley S.; Kaspari, Michael

doi:10.1002/ecs2.1639

Cited by 34 publications

(29 citation statements)

References 55 publications

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“…In the context of those results, therefore, we cannot evaluate the structure of the nest-carton bacterial community identified here. Nevertheless, reports based on 16S sequencing have been published for nests of the Neotropical ants Azteca trigona and A. alfari, and the Palearctic species Formica exsecta (Lucas et al 2017(Lucas et al , 2019Lindström et al 2019). Three phyla (Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria and Acidobacteria) were the most abundant in the microbiota profiles determined in those studies; the same pattern emerged in the present study.…”

supporting

confidence: 82%

“…To date, studies using high throughput sequencing techniques for microbiota profiling have focused primarily on identifying and analysing the bacterial communities associated with different ant species (Kautz et al 2013b;Vieira et al 2017;Lucas et al 2017;Ramalho et al 2017bRamalho et al , 2017cRamalho et al , 2019Hu et al 2018;Chua et al 2018;Segers et al 2019). Although myrmecophiles interact closely with ants and are often found inside ants' nests, no exhaustive analyses of the bacterial communities associated with those species have been carried out (but see (Liberti et al 2015;Fischer et al 2017;Ivens et al 2018; Di Salvo et al…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The microbiota of the Lasius fuliginosus – Pella laticollis myrmecophilous interaction

Kaczmarczyk-Ziemba

Zagaja

Wagner

et al. 2020

The European Zoological Journal

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Myrmecophilous insects depend on their ant hosts during at least part of their life cycle. Lasius ants appear to be primarily involved as host in myrmecophilous interactions, especially with aphids and beetles, e.g. staphylinid. Pella laticollis is a rove beetle having a close ecological association with Lasius fuliginosus, which is correlated to its behavior adapted to avoid attack. Microorganisms can also play an important role in the maintenance of such relationships. We used 16S rRNA sequencing on the Illumina MiSeq platform to identify the bacterial communities associated with larvae and adults of both L. fuliginosus and P. laticollis. In addition, we determined the microbiota profiles of the nest-carton, an organic material lining the nest chambers. We obtained more than two million good quality reads. Taxonomic annotation showed that the profiles consisted of a total of 20 phyla, among which Proteobacteria was the most abundant. The samples were grouped according to the host's developmental stage or the nest material, and the differences between those groups were significant. Only the microbiota of L. fuliginosus larvae and adults did not differ significantly. Analyses at the genus level indicated a heightened abundance of Pseudomonas in the insects' profiles. The bacterial communities associated with the nest-carton included bacterial genera recorded from soil and dead wood. The profiles showed the presence of two well-known endosymbiotic bacteria, namely, Rickettsia and Wolbachia. According to our findings, the bacterial communities associated with larvae and adults of both L. fuliginosus and P. laticollis formed clusters according to the host's identity and its developmental stage. The profiles determined for the nest-carton formed a separate group. Our study is in line with a new research trend that is focusing on microbiota associated not only with ants, but also with myrmecophiles and ant nests inhabited by those species.

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supporting

confidence: 82%

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The microbiota of the Lasius fuliginosus – Pella laticollis myrmecophilous interaction

Kaczmarczyk-Ziemba

Zagaja

Wagner

et al. 2020

The European Zoological Journal

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“…Some ant species build massive colonies that modify soil texture, promote soil fertility, and provide refugia for plant species [1]. Recent studies have also demonstrated that ant colonies can increase the activity of soil microbial communities and modify their community composition at the scale of individual nests [2][3][4][5], but little is known about the microbiome associated with ant colonies and their nests across multiple locations and at large spatial scales. Identifying the role of these ubiquitous biotically engineered patches in driving the diversity and community composition of microbial communities is essential to better understand the spatial distribution and history of soil microbial communities in terrestrial ecosystems.…”

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confidence: 99%

Ant colonies promote the diversity of soil microbial communities

et al. 2019

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Little is known about the role of ant colonies in regulating the distribution and diversity of soil microbial communities across large spatial scales. Here, we conducted a survey across >1000 km in eastern Australia and found that, compared with surrounding bare soils, ant colonies promoted the richness (number of phylotypes) and relative abundance of rare taxa of fungi and bacteria. Ant nests were also an important reservoir for plant pathogens. Our study also provides a portfolio of microbial phylotypes only found in ant nests, and which are associated with high nutrient availability. Together, our work highlights the fact that ant nests are an important refugia for microbial diversity.

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“…Orthopteran microbiomes can contain diverse communities (Muratore et al, 2020). These microbiome communities inside invertebrates are often distinct from soil communities (Lucas et al, 2017), and therefore frass deposition may be an important source of novel bacteria. For example, Snyder et al (1999) demonstrated that grasshopper frass can be an important dispersal mechanism for rhizobacterium.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Functional and taxonomic diversity of grasshoppers differentially shape above‐ and below‐ground communities and their function

et al. 2020

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1. Herbivores are important drivers in both above-and below-ground ecosystems. Despite their importance, studies of herbivores often focus on the effects of individual species, potentially missing the effects of herbivore diversity. 2. Here we examine how orthopteran herbivore species and functional (i.e. diet) diversity interact with nutrient availability to shape above-and below-ground ecosystems. We stocked six species of grasshoppers (Orthoptera) with two different feeding modes (i.e. grass-only or grass-and forb-feeders) at varying taxonomic compositions (0, 1 or 6 species) in field enclosures and measured their effects on above-ground plant biomass, chemistry and richness, as well as below-ground microbial community composition and function. We treated half the cages with nitrogen fertilizer to examine how herbivore effects may be mitigated by soil nutrient availability. 3. Above-ground, we predicted that grasshoppers would decrease plant biomass and richness, and increase the %N of the plant community. We also predicted that high diversity cages would have the largest decreases in plant biomass and richness, but these effects would be offset by fertilizer additions. 4. Below-ground, we predicted that herbivore taxonomic composition and diet would differentially shift soil microbial community composition and function. We also predicted that fertilization would decrease the soil pH and increase nutrient availability creating an interaction with herbivores that leads to shifts belowground community composition. 5. We found that grasshoppers decreased plant biomass and richness, and this effect was not dependent on nutrient additions. Contrary to our predictions, we did not see the largest above-ground changes in high diversity cages. 6. Below-ground, herbivore diet and fertilization, but not their interaction, shifted bacterial communities. Grasshopper taxonomic composition did not influence bacterial communities. Grasshopper taxonomic composition and diet interacted

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The microbiome of the ant‐built home: the microbial communities of a tropical arboreal ant and its nest

Cited by 34 publications

References 55 publications

The microbiota of the Lasius fuliginosus – Pella laticollis myrmecophilous interaction

The microbiota of the Lasius fuliginosus – Pella laticollis myrmecophilous interaction

Ant colonies promote the diversity of soil microbial communities

Functional and taxonomic diversity of grasshoppers differentially shape above‐ and below‐ground communities and their function

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