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Journal article
Domestication and evolutionary histories of specialized gut symbionts across cephalotine ants
Molecular ecology, v 33(15), e17454
Aug 2024
PMID: 39005142
Featured in Collection : UN Sustainable Development Goals @ Drexel
Abstract
Abstract The evolution of animals and their gut symbionts is a complex phenomenon, obscured by lability and diversity. In social organisms, transmission of symbionts among relatives may yield systems with more stable associations. Here, we study the history of a social insect symbiosis involving cephalotine ants and their extracellular gut bacteria, which come predominantly from host‐specialized lineages. We perform multi‐locus phylogenetics for symbionts from nine bacterial orders, and map prior amplicon sequence data to lineage‐assigned symbiont genomes, studying distributions of rigorously defined symbionts across 20 host species. Based on monophyly and additional hypothesis testing, we estimate that these specialized gut bacteria belong to 18 distinct lineages, of which 15 have been successfully isolated and cultured. Several symbiont lineages showed evidence for domestication events that occurred later in cephalotine evolutionary history, and only one lineage was ubiquitously detected in all 20 host species and 48 colonies sampled with amplicon 16S rRNA sequencing. We found evidence for phylogenetically constrained distributions in four symbionts, suggesting historical or genetic impacts on community composition. Two lineages showed evidence for frequent intra‐lineage co‐infections, highlighting the potential for niche divergence after initial domestication. Nearly all symbionts showed evidence for occasional host switching, but four may, more often, co‐diversify with their hosts. Through our further assessment of symbiont localization and genomic functional profiles, we demonstrate distinct niches for symbionts with shared evolutionary histories, prompting further questions on the forces underlying the evolution of hosts and their gut microbiomes.
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Details
- Title
- Domestication and evolutionary histories of specialized gut symbionts across cephalotine ants
- Creators
- Christian Cabuslay - Drexel UniversityJohn T. Wertz - Calvin UniversityBenoît Béchade - Drexel UniversityYi Hu - Department of Biology Drexel University Philadelphia Pennsylvania USA, State key Laboratory of Earth Surface Processes and Resource Ecology and Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Biodiversity Science and Ecological Engineering, College of Life Sciences Beijing Normal University Beijing ChinaSonali Braganza - Drexel UniversityDaniel Freeman - Department of Biology Drexel University Philadelphia Pennsylvania USAShreyansh Pradhan - Department of Biology Drexel University Philadelphia Pennsylvania USAMaria Mukhanova - Drexel UniversityScott Powell - George Washington UniversityCorrie Moreau - Cornell UniversityJacob A. Russell - Drexel University, Biodiversity, Earth, and Environmental Science (BEES)
- Publication Details
- Molecular ecology, v 33(15), e17454
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Biodiversity, Earth, and Environmental Science (BEES); Biology
- Web of Science ID
- WOS:001270927800001
- Scopus ID
- 2-s2.0-85198503462
- Other Identifier
- 991021894415704721
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- Collaboration types
- Domestic collaboration
- International collaboration
- Web of Science research areas
- Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
- Ecology
- Evolutionary Biology