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Published October 2016 | Accepted Version + Supplemental Material
Journal Article Open

Bacterial microbiomes from vertically-transmitted fungal inocula of the leaf-cutting ant Atta texana

Abstract

Microbiome surveys provide clues for the functional roles of symbiotic microbial communities and their hosts. In this study, we elucidated bacterial microbiomes associated with the vertically transmitted fungal inocula (pellets) used by foundress queens of the leaf-cutting ant Atta texana as starter-cultures for new gardens. As reference microbiomes, we also surveyed bacterial microbiomes of foundress queens, gardens and brood of incipient nests. Pseudomonas, Acinetobacter, Propionibacterium and Corynebacterium were consistently present in high abundance in microbiomes. Some pellet and ant samples contained abundant bacteria from an Entomoplasmatales-clade, and a separate PCR-based survey of Entomoplasmatales bacteria in eight attine ant-genera from Brazil placed these bacteria in a monophyletic clade within the bacterial genus Mesoplasma. The attine ant-Mesoplasma association parallels a similar association between a closely related, monophyletic Entomoplasmatales-clade and army ants. Of thirteen A. texana nests surveyed, three nests with exceptionally high Mesoplasma abundance died, whereas the other nests survived. It is unclear whether Mesoplasma was the primary cause of mortality, or Mesoplasma became abundant in moribund nests for non-pathogenic reasons. However, the consistent and geographically widespread presence of Mesoplasma suggests an important functional role in the association with attine ants.

Additional Information

© 2016 Society for Applied Microbiology and John Wiley & Sons Ltd. Received 25 November, 2015; accepted 26 March, 2016, accepted manuscript online: 6 June 2016. We thank the São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) for a fellowship to LAM to conduct the research at the University of Texas at Austin (awards 2013/08338-0 and 2013/25748-8), and the National Science Foundation (NSF) for support to UGM (awards 0919519 & 1354666). We are grateful to Melissa Kardish for lab support, and to Heather Ishak for help with Mesoplasma found in previous surveys. We thank Mariana Barcoto, Tássio Brito, Quimi Montoya, two anonymous reviewers, and the editor for exceedingly helpful comments on the manuscript. The authors declare no conflict of interest. The authors declare no conflict of interest. Data accessibility: Complete DNA sequences dataset: NCBI Sequence Read Archive accession SRP060331. DNA sequences used in phylogenetic analyses: GenBank accessions KT247990-KT248020. See also Figs. 1, S3 and S5.

Attached Files

Accepted Version - Meirelles_et_al-2016-Environmental_Microbiology_Reports.pdf

Supplemental Material - emi412415-sup-0001-SuppFinal01.txt

Supplemental Material - emi412415-sup-0001-suppinfo01.docx

Supplemental Material - emi412415-sup-0002-SuppFinal02.txt

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Created:
August 22, 2023
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