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      Symbiotic bacterial communities in rainforest fungus-farming ants: evidence for species and colony specificity

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          Abstract

          Animals may host diverse bacterial communities that can markedly affect their behavioral physiology, ecology, and vulnerability to disease. Fungus-farming ants represent a classical example of mutualism that depends on symbiotic microorganisms. Unraveling the bacterial communities associated with fungus-farming ants is essential to understand the role of these microorganisms in the ant-fungus symbiosis. The bacterial community structure of five species of fungus-farmers (non-leaf-cutters; genera Mycocepurus, Mycetarotes, Mycetophylax, and Sericomyrmex) from three different environments in the Brazilian Atlantic rainforest (lowland forest, restinga forest, and sand dunes) was characterized with amplicon-based Illumina sequencing of 16 S ribosomal RNA gene. Possible differences in bacterial communities between ants internal to the nest (on the fungus garden) and external foragers were also investigated. Our results on the richness and diversity of associated bacteria provide novel evidence that these communities are host- and colony-specific in fungus-farming ants. Indeed, the bacterial communities associated with external foragers differ among the five species, and among colonies of the same species. Furthermore, bacterial communities from internal ants vs. foragers do not differ or differ only slightly within each ant species. This study highlights the importance of describing ant-associated bacterial communities to better understand this host-bacterial interaction in the social environment of insect colonies and provides the foundation for future studies on the ecological and evolutionary processes that drive the success of fungus-farming ants.

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          Global patterns of 16S rRNA diversity at a depth of millions of sequences per sample.

          The ongoing revolution in high-throughput sequencing continues to democratize the ability of small groups of investigators to map the microbial component of the biosphere. In particular, the coevolution of new sequencing platforms and new software tools allows data acquisition and analysis on an unprecedented scale. Here we report the next stage in this coevolutionary arms race, using the Illumina GAIIx platform to sequence a diverse array of 25 environmental samples and three known "mock communities" at a depth averaging 3.1 million reads per sample. We demonstrate excellent consistency in taxonomic recovery and recapture diversity patterns that were previously reported on the basis of metaanalysis of many studies from the literature (notably, the saline/nonsaline split in environmental samples and the split between host-associated and free-living communities). We also demonstrate that 2,000 Illumina single-end reads are sufficient to recapture the same relationships among samples that we observe with the full dataset. The results thus open up the possibility of conducting large-scale studies analyzing thousands of samples simultaneously to survey microbial communities at an unprecedented spatial and temporal resolution.
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            The gut bacteria of insects: nonpathogenic interactions.

            The diversity of the Insecta is reflected in the large and varied microbial communities inhabiting the gut. Studies, particularly with termites and cockroaches, have focused on the nutritional contributions of gut bacteria in insects living on suboptimal diets. The indigenous gut bacteria, however, also play a role in withstanding the colonization of the gut by non-indigenous species including pathogens. Gut bacterial consortia adapt by the transfer of plasmids and transconjugation between bacterial strains, and some insect species provide ideal conditions for bacterial conjugation, which suggests that the gut is a "hot spot" for gene transfer. Genomic analysis provides new avenues for the study of the gut microbial community and will reveal the molecular foundations of the relationships between the insect and its microbiome. In this review the intestinal bacteria is discussed in the context of developing our understanding of symbiotic relationships, of multitrophic interactions between insects and plant or animal host, and in developing new strategies for controlling insect pests.
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              Ecology of actinomycetes.

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                Author and article information

                Contributors
                marianeronque@gmail.com
                Journal
                Sci Rep
                Sci Rep
                Scientific Reports
                Nature Publishing Group UK (London )
                2045-2322
                23 June 2020
                23 June 2020
                2020
                : 10
                : 10172
                Affiliations
                [1 ]ISNI 0000 0001 0723 2494, GRID grid.411087.b, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ecologia, Instituto de Biologia, C.P. 6109, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, ; 13083-862 Campinas, SP Brazil
                [2 ]ISNI 0000 0001 2188 478X, GRID grid.410543.7, Departamento de Biodiversidade, Instituto de Biociências, Universidade Estadual Paulista - Campus Rio Claro, ; 13506-900 Rio Claro, SP Brazil
                [3 ]ISNI 0000 0001 2188 478X, GRID grid.410543.7, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Biologia Animal, Universidade Estadual Paulista - Campus São José do Rio Preto, ; 15054-000 São José do Rio Preto, SP Brazil
                [4 ]ISNI 0000 0001 2188 478X, GRID grid.410543.7, Centro de Estudos de Insetos Sociais, Universidade Estadual Paulista - Campus Rio Claro, ; 13506-900 Rio Claro, SP Brazil
                [5 ]ISNI 0000 0001 0723 2494, GRID grid.411087.b, Departamento de Biologia Animal, C.P. 6109, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, ; 13083-862 Campinas, SP Brazil
                Author information
                http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2666-2083
                http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7863-4965
                http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8526-0148
                http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5619-1411
                http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4696-2999
                Article
                66772
                10.1038/s41598-020-66772-6
                7311517
                32576863
                232fdb4b-8b27-4924-8183-59804397c78e
                © The Author(s) 2020

                Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

                History
                : 20 June 2019
                : 19 May 2020
                Funding
                Funded by: FundRef https://doi.org/10.13039/501100002322, Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (Brazilian Federal Agency for the Support and Evaluation of Graduate Education);
                Award ID: 001
                Award ID: 001
                Award Recipient :
                Funded by: FundRef https://doi.org/10.13039/501100001807, Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (São Paulo Research Foundation);
                Award ID: 2014/24407-3
                Award Recipient :
                Categories
                Article
                Custom metadata
                © The Author(s) 2020

                Uncategorized
                microbial ecology,entomology
                Uncategorized
                microbial ecology, entomology

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