Seipke, RF, Barke, J, Heavens, D et al. (2 more authors) (2013) Analysis of the bacterial communities associated with two ant-plant symbioses. MicrobiologyOpen, 2 (2). 276 - 283.
Abstract
Insect fungiculture is practiced by ants, termites, beetles, and gall midges and it has been suggested to be widespread among plant-ants. Some of the insects engaged in fungiculture, including attine ants and bark beetles, are known to use symbiotic antibiotic-producing actinobacteria to protect themselves and their fungal cultivars against infection. In this study, we analyze the bacterial communities on the cuticles of the plant-ant genera Allomerus and Tetraponera using deep sequencing of 16S rRNA. Allomerus ants cultivate fungus as a building material to strengthen traps for prey, while Tetraponera ants cultivate fungus as a food source. We report that Allomerus and Tetraponera microbiomes contain >75% Proteobacteria and remarkably the bacterial phyla that dominate their cuticular microbiomes are very similar despite their geographic separation (South America and Africa, respectively). Notably, antibiotic-producing actinomycete bacteria represent a tiny fraction of the cuticular microbiomes of both Allomerus and Tetraponera spp. and instead they are dominated by γ-proteobacteria Erwinia and Serratia spp. Both these phyla are known to contain antibiotic-producing species which might therefore play a protective role in these ant-plant systems.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2013 The Authors. MicrobiologyOpen published by Blackwell Publishing Ltd. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution CC BY 3.0 License |
Keywords: | Actinobacteria; Africa; Animals; Ants; Bacteria; Erwinia; Fungi; Metagenome; Plants; Proteobacteria; RNA, Ribosomal, 16S; Sequence Analysis, DNA; Serratia; Soil Microbiology; South America; Symbiosis |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Biological Sciences (Leeds) > School of Molecular and Cellular Biology (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 19 Aug 2014 13:48 |
Last Modified: | 17 Aug 2015 13:36 |
Published Version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/mbo3.73 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Wiley |
Identification Number: | 10.1002/mbo3.73 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:80027 |