Evidence of phylosymbiosis in Formica ants

Frontiers in Microbiology

Microbiology

Michel Chapuisat¹  Heikki Helanterä²  Raphaella Jackson³  Lee M. Henry³  Chloe K. Economou³  Gemma Golding³  Patapios A. Patapiou⁴ 

[1] Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland;Ecology and Genetics Research Unit, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland;Tvärminne Zoological Station, University of Helsinki, Hanko, Finland;School of Biological and Behavioural Sciences, Queen Mary University of London, London, United Kingdom;School of Biological and Behavioural Sciences, Queen Mary University of London, London, United Kingdom;Department of Pathobiology and Population Sciences, Royal Veterinary College, Hatfield, United Kingdom;

关键词: phylosymbiosis;    endosymbiont;    ant;    microbiome;    evolution;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fmicb.2023.1044286

 received in 2022-09-14, accepted in 2023-03-31,  发布年份 2023

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

IntroductionInsects share intimate relationships with microbes that play important roles in their biology. Yet our understanding of how host-bound microbial communities assemble and perpetuate over evolutionary time is limited. Ants host a wide range of microbes with diverse functions and are an emerging model for studying the evolution of insect microbiomes. Here, we ask whether phylogenetically related ant species have formed distinct and stable microbiomes.MethodsTo answer this question, we investigated the microbial communities associated with queens of 14 Formica species from five clades, using deep coverage 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing.ResultsWe reveal that Formica species and clades harbor highly defined microbial communities that are dominated by four bacteria genera: Wolbachia, Lactobacillus, Liliensternia, and Spiroplasma. Our analysis reveals that the composition of Formica microbiomes mirrors the phylogeny of the host, i.e., phylosymbiosis, in that related hosts harbor more similar microbial communities. In addition, we find there are significant correlations between microbe co-occurrences.DiscussionOur results demonstrate Formica ants carry microbial communities that recapitulate the phylogeny of their hosts. Our data suggests that the co-occurrence of different bacteria genera may at least in part be due to synergistic and antagonistic interactions between microbes. Additional factors potentially contributing to the phylosymbiotic signal are discussed, including host phylogenetic relatedness, host-microbe genetic compatibility, modes of transmission, and similarities in host ecologies (e.g., diets). Overall, our results support the growing body of evidence that microbial community composition closely depends on the phylogeny of their hosts, despite bacteria having diverse modes of transmission and localization within the host.

【 授权许可】

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Copyright © 2023 Jackson, Patapiou, Golding, Helanterä, Economou, Chapuisat and Henry.