Journal article
The structured diversity of specialized gut symbionts of the New World army ants
Molecular ecology, v 26(14), pp 3808-3825
Jul 2017
PMID: 28393425
Featured in Collection : UN Sustainable Development Goals @ Drexel
Abstract
Symbiotic bacteria play important roles in the biology of their arthropod hosts. Yet the microbiota of many diverse and influential groups remain understudied, resulting in a paucity of information on the fidelities and histories of these associations. Motivated by prior findings from a smaller scale, 16S rRNA‐based study, we conducted a broad phylogenetic and geographic survey of microbial communities in the ecologically dominant New World army ants (Formicidae: Dorylinae). Amplicon sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene across 28 species spanning the five New World genera showed that the microbial communities of army ants consist of very few common and abundant bacterial species. The two most abundant microbes, referred to as Unclassified Firmicutes and Unclassified Entomoplasmatales, appear to be specialized army ant associates that dominate microbial communities in the gut lumen of three host genera, Eciton, Labidus and Nomamyrmex. Both are present in other army ant genera, including those from the Old World, suggesting that army ant symbioses date back to the Cretaceous. Extensive sequencing of bacterial protein‐coding genes revealed multiple strains of these symbionts coexisting within colonies, but seldom within the same individual ant. Bacterial strains formed multiple host species‐specific lineages on phylogenies, which often grouped strains from distant geographic locations. These patterns deviate from those seen in other social insects and raise intriguing questions about the influence of army ant colony swarm‐founding and within‐colony genetic diversity on strain coexistence, and the effects of hosting a diverse suite of symbiont strains on colony ecology.
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Details
- Title
- The structured diversity of specialized gut symbionts of the New World army ants
- Creators
- Piotr Łukasik - Drexel UniversityJustin A. Newton - Drexel UniversityJon G. Sanders - Harvard UniversityYi Hu - Drexel UniversityCorrie S. Moreau - Field Museum of Natural HistoryDaniel J. C. Kronauer - Rockefeller UniversitySean O'Donnell - Drexel UniversityRyuichi Koga - National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and TechnologyJacob A. Russell - Drexel University
- Publication Details
- Molecular ecology, v 26(14), pp 3808-3825
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Number of pages
- 18
- Grant note
- Division of Environmental Biology (1050243; 1050360) Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (PE13061)
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Biodiversity, Earth, and Environmental Science (BEES); Biology
- Web of Science ID
- WOS:000404618000019
- Scopus ID
- 2-s2.0-85019068512
- Other Identifier
- 991019169915104721
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- Collaboration types
- Domestic collaboration
- International collaboration
- Web of Science research areas
- Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
- Ecology
- Evolutionary Biology