Supplementary Information (SI) Appendix

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Supplementary Information (SI) Appendix 1 Supplementary Information (SI) Appendix 2 3 Nitrogen conservation, conserved: 46 million years of N-recycling by 4 the core symbionts of turtle ants 5 6 Yi Hu, Jon G. Sanders, Piotr Łukasik, Catherine L. D'Amelio, John S. Millar, David 7 R. Vann, Yemin Lan, Justin A. Newton, Mark Schotanus, John T. Wertz, Daniel J. C. 8 Kronauer, Naomi E. Pierce, Corrie S. Moreau, Philipp Engel, Jacob A. Russell 9 10 Table of Contents 11 Supplementary Figure legends ................................................................................... 1 12 Supplementary Table legends ..................................................................................... 8 13 Supplementary Materials and Methods................................................................... 10 14 Assessing N-fixation ................................................................................................ 10 15 Feeding experiments with 15N-labeled urea and 13C/15N-labeled glutamate ............ 10 16 qPCR and amplicon 16S rRNA sequencing to estimate antibiotic efficacy ............ 12 17 Amino acid analysis from ant hemolymph by gas-chromatography-mass 18 spectrometry (GC-MS) ............................................................................................. 13 19 DNA preparation for C. varians metagenomics, non-C. varians ants for 20 metagenomics and cultured bacteria ...................................................................14-15 21 Genome and metagenome sequencing, assembly and annotation ............................ 16 22 Genome binning using Anvi’o in conjunction with the CONCOCT ....................... 19 23 Visualization of taxonomic composition of metagenomes based on coverage 24 and %GC .................................................................................................................. 20 25 Fluorescence in situ hybridization ............................................................................ 20 26 Stable isotope data .................................................................................................... 21 27 Assays to measure urea production (via allantoin) and urea degradation (into 28 ammonia) ................................................................................................................. 21 29 Supplementary Results .............................................................................................. 24 30 Colony fragment nutritional experiments—antibiotic treatments ............................ 24 1 31 Fine-scale metagenome binning from C. varians colony PL010: Why did N- 32 recycling genes appear absent from Cephaloticoccus and the predicted uric acid 33 degrading Burkholderiales with relatedness to isolate Cv33a? ................................ 25 34 A summary of sequenced genomes from cultured isolates ...................................... 25 35 Our cultured isolates are highly similar to previously sampled core symbionts. .... 26 36 References ................................................................................................................... 28 37 38 39 Supplementary Figure legends 40 41 Figure S1. Relative bacterial abundance in the ant groups under different 42 dietary treatments in the 15N labeled glutamate (A), 13C labeled glutamate (B) 43 and 15N labeled urea feeding experiment (C). The relative bacterial abundance was 44 determined by dividing bacterial 16S rRNA copy number estimates by one tenth of 45 the total amount of bacterial 16S rRNA copy number estimates of the ten pooled gut 46 DNA sample used for constructing standard curves. 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing 47 was performed only for ants in 15/14N glutamate. NA=16S amplicon sequencing not 48 performed for these ants. 49 50 Figure S2. Survival of Cephalotes varians workers under different dietary 51 treatments with isotope labeling of dietary urea (A) and dietary glutamate (B) 52 with symbiont removal or maintenance. (A) Cox regression analysis for the 53 workers fed on antibiotics (green lines) shows that disruption of gut microbiota 54 significantly reduces survival (Wald statistic = 6.89, df = 1,P=0.0087 for coloy 55 PL215A; Wald statistic = 22.67, df = 1,P= 1.924e-06 for coloy PL217; Wald statistic 56 = 3.67, df = 1,P=0.0553 for coloy PL231). (B) Cox regression analysis for the 57 workers fed on antibiotics (green lines) shows that disruption of gut microbiota has no 58 effect on survival of C. varians in this experiment. (Wald statistic = 2.4, df = 1, 2 59 P=0.1214 for coloy PL207; Wald statistic = 0.29, df = 1, P= 0.5888 for coloy PL210; 60 Wald statistic = 0, df = 1, P=0.9882 for coloy PL231). 61 62 Figure S3. Percentage of 13C-labeling of free essential amino acids (A) and non- 63 essential amino acids (B) in hemolymph of Cephalotes varians fed with 13C- 64 labeled glutamate. Asterisks indicated that 13C in amino acids from 13C-treated ants 65 (blue) was significantly higher than in ants feeding on unlabeled glutamate (red) and 66 in aposymbiotic ants feeding on 13C-labeled glutamate (green) across three 67 investiaged colonies. 68 69 Figure S4. Percentage of 15N-labeling of free essential amino acids (A) and non- 70 essential amino acids (B) in hemolymph of Cephalotes varians fed with 15N- 71 labeled glutamate. Asterisks indicated that 15N in amino acids from 15N-treated ants 72 (blue) was significantly higher than in ants feeding on unlabeled glutamate (red) and 73 in aposymbiotic ants feeding on 15N-labeled glutamate (green) across three 74 investiaged colonies. 75 76 Figure S5. Phylogenetic analyses of symbiont 16S rRNA genes reveal strong 77 taxonomic conservation among worker-associated gut bacteria. Phylogenies of 78 16S rRNA nucleic acid sequences based on sequences extracted from 18 Cephalots 79 metagenomes and top BLAST hits. Rooted maximum likelihood phylogeny reveals 80 nearly all Cephalotes-associates come from Cephalotes-specific clades. N-recycling 81 bacteria identified through in vitro assays are emphasized with cyan or green lines 82 connecting their branches to their strain names. Outer circle and branch colors: 83 bacterial taxonomy. Middle circle colors: Cephalotes species groups. Inner circle: all 3 84 red shading of taxon names reveals sequences coming from our metagenomic 85 datasets, bright red shading of taxon names reveals cultured isolates and gray shading 86 of taxon names represents non-Cephalotine ant associated bacteria. 87 88 Figure S6. The conserved operons of genes involved in uric acid degradation and 89 urea degradation pathways across 17 Cephalotes ant species. A cladogram based 90 on reported relationships12 is shown on the left. Names and functions of genes in the 91 uric acid degradation and urea gene operons are given at the top of the figure. The 92 arrow with dashed lines represents ant host derived metabolic steps. The gene 93 structure of each operon was shown in all 18 metagenomes, with the left panel 94 indicating Xanthine/Uric acid degradation gene operons and the right panel indicating 95 Urea degradation gene operons. Each gene operon was labelled by the corresponding 96 scaffold ID and was highlighted by a box colored by the bacterial orders to which 97 they were binned. For some hosts (C. varians and C. rohweri) we present data from 98 cultured isolate genome sequencing; such findings are indicated with labeling at right, 99 while distinctions between the two metagenomes from C. varians are indicated at the 100 right as well. 101 102 Figure S7. Presence or absence of genes involved in pathways of xanthine/uric 103 acid degradation, urea degradation, ammonia assimilation and amino acid 104 synthesis for eight bacterial bins in each of the gut metagenome of 18 Cephalotes. 105 Symbionts hail from the orders Burkholderiales (A), Rhizobiales (B), Opitutales (C), 106 Pseudomonadales (D), Xanthomonadales (E), Campylobacterales (F) and 107 Flavobacteriales (G). White and blue in each heatmap respectively represent the 108 absence and presence of genes associated with the focal metabolic pathways. If total 4 109 length of scaffolds belonging to a specific bacterial taxa from one metagenomic 110 dataset is less than 50% of the total length of the same taxa draft genome assembled 111 from metagenome,Gray bars denote the lack of pathway information for the core 112 bacterial bins of Cephalotes ants. A cladogram based on previously published 113 relationships of 18 Cephalotes ants12 is shown to the left of each panel. Common 114 ancestry traces back to roughly 46 million years. 115 116 Figure S8 Phylogenetic analyses of symbiont UreC proteins reveal patterns of 117 convergent functional evolution among worker-associated gut bacteria. 118 Phylogenies of UreC proteins based on sequences extracted from 18 Cephalotes 119 metagenomes and top BLAST hits.Rooted maximum likelihood phylogeny reveals 120 nearly all Cephalotes-associates come from Cephalotes-specific clades. Outer circle 121 and branch colors: bacterial taxonomy. A lack of shading in the outer circle, for 122 Cephalotes-derived sequences, revealed that ureC genes fell on contigs that could not 123 be assigned to bacterial phyla or any lower taxa. Middle circle colors: Cephalotes 124 species groups. Inner circle: all red shading of taxon names reveals sequences coming 125 from our metagenomic datasets, bright red shading of taxon names reveals cultured 126 isolates, gray shading of taxon names represents non-Cephalotine ant associated 127 bacteria, and green shadings of taxon names reveals sequences from Bartonella apis 128 isolated from honeybees. 129 130 Figure S9.
Recommended publications
  • Community Analysis of Microbial Sharing and Specialization in A
    Downloaded from http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/ on March 15, 2017 Community analysis of microbial sharing rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org and specialization in a Costa Rican ant–plant–hemipteran symbiosis Elizabeth G. Pringle1,2 and Corrie S. Moreau3 Research 1Department of Biology, Program in Ecology, Evolution, and Conservation Biology, University of Nevada, Cite this article: Pringle EG, Moreau CS. 2017 Reno, NV 89557, USA 2Michigan Society of Fellows, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA Community analysis of microbial sharing and 3Department of Science and Education, Field Museum of Natural History, 1400 South Lake Shore Drive, specialization in a Costa Rican ant–plant– Chicago, IL 60605, USA hemipteran symbiosis. Proc. R. Soc. B 284: EGP, 0000-0002-4398-9272 20162770. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2016.2770 Ants have long been renowned for their intimate mutualisms with tropho- bionts and plants and more recently appreciated for their widespread and diverse interactions with microbes. An open question in symbiosis research is the extent to which environmental influence, including the exchange of Received: 14 December 2016 microbes between interacting macroorganisms, affects the composition and Accepted: 17 January 2017 function of symbiotic microbial communities. Here we approached this ques- tion by investigating symbiosis within symbiosis. Ant–plant–hemipteran symbioses are hallmarks of tropical ecosystems that produce persistent close contact among the macroorganism partners, which then have substantial opportunity to exchange symbiotic microbes. We used metabarcoding and Subject Category: quantitative PCR to examine community structure of both bacteria and Ecology fungi in a Neotropical ant–plant–scale-insect symbiosis. Both phloem-feed- ing scale insects and honeydew-feeding ants make use of microbial Subject Areas: symbionts to subsist on phloem-derived diets of suboptimal nutritional qual- ecology, evolution, microbiology ity.
    [Show full text]
  • Invasive Argentine Ants Have Shifted Diet Without Clear Aid from Symbiotic Microbes
    Molecular Ecology (2017) 26, 1608–1630 doi: 10.1111/mec.13991 By their own devices: invasive Argentine ants have shifted diet without clear aid from symbiotic microbes YI HU,* DAVID A. HOLWAY,† PIOTR ŁUKASIK,* LINH CHAU,* ADAM D. KAY,‡ EDWARD G. LEBRUN,§ KATIE A. MILLER,‡ JON G. SANDERS,¶ ANDREW V. SUAREZ** and JACOB A. RUSSELL* *Department of Biology, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA, †Division of Biological Sciences, University of California-San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA, ‡Department of Biology, University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, MN 55105, USA, §Department of Integrative Biology, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78703, USA, ¶Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA, **Department of Animal Biology, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA Abstract The functions and compositions of symbiotic bacterial communities often correlate with host ecology. Yet cause–effect relationships and the order of symbiont vs. host change remain unclear in the face of ancient symbioses and conserved host ecology. Several groups of ants exemplify this challenge, as their low-nitrogen diets and spe- cialized symbioses appear conserved and ancient. To address whether nitrogen-provi- sioning symbionts might be important in the early stages of ant trophic shifts, we studied bacteria from the Argentine ant, Linepithema humile – an invasive species that has transitioned towards greater consumption of sugar-rich, nitrogen-poor foods in parts of its introduced range. Bacteria were present at low densities in most L. humile workers, and among those yielding quality 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing data, we found just three symbionts to be common and dominant.
    [Show full text]
  • Correlates of Gut Community Composition Across an Ant Species (Cephalotes Varians) Elucidate Causes and Consequences of Symbiotic Variability
    Molecular Ecology (2014) 23, 1284–1300 doi: 10.1111/mec.12607 SPECIAL ISSUE: NATURE’S MICROBIOME Correlates of gut community composition across an ant species (Cephalotes varians) elucidate causes and consequences of symbiotic variability YI HU,* PIOTR ŁUKASIK,* CORRIE S. MOREAU† and JACOB A. RUSSELL* *Department of Biology, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA, †Department of Science and Education, Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, IL 60605, USA Abstract Insect guts are often colonized by multispecies microbial communities that play inte- gral roles in nutrition, digestion and defence. Community composition can differ across host species with increasing dietary and genetic divergence, yet gut microbiota can also vary between conspecific hosts and across an individual’s lifespan. Through exploration of such intraspecific variation and its correlates, molecular profiling of microbial communities can generate and test hypotheses on the causes and conse- quences of symbioses. In this study, we used 454 pyrosequencing and TRFLP to achieve these goals in an herbivorous ant, Cephalotes varians, exploring variation in bacterial communities across colonies, populations and workers reared on different diets. C. varians bacterial communities were dominated by 16 core species present in over two-thirds of the sampled colonies. Core species comprised multiple genotypes, or strains and hailed from ant-specific clades containing relatives from other Cephal- otes species. Yet three were detected in environmental samples, suggesting the poten- tial for environmental acquisition. In spite of their prevalence and long-standing relationships with Cephalotes ants, the relative abundance and genotypic composition of core species varied across colonies. Diet-induced plasticity is a likely cause, but only pollen-based diets had consistent effects, altering the abundance of two types of bacte- ria.
    [Show full text]
  • Bacterial Infections Across the Ants: Frequency and Prevalence of Wolbachia, Spiroplasma, and Asaia
    Hindawi Publishing Corporation Psyche Volume 2013, Article ID 936341, 11 pages http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2013/936341 Research Article Bacterial Infections across the Ants: Frequency and Prevalence of Wolbachia, Spiroplasma,andAsaia Stefanie Kautz,1 Benjamin E. R. Rubin,1,2 and Corrie S. Moreau1 1 Department of Zoology, Field Museum of Natural History, 1400 South Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, IL 60605, USA 2 Committee on Evolutionary Biology, University of Chicago, 1025 East 57th Street, Chicago, IL 60637, USA Correspondence should be addressed to Stefanie Kautz; [email protected] Received 21 February 2013; Accepted 30 May 2013 Academic Editor: David P. Hughes Copyright © 2013 Stefanie Kautz et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Bacterial endosymbionts are common across insects, but we often lack a deeper knowledge of their prevalence across most organisms. Next-generation sequencing approaches can characterize bacterial diversity associated with a host and at the same time facilitate the fast and simultaneous screening of infectious bacteria. In this study, we used 16S rRNA tag encoded amplicon pyrosequencing to survey bacterial communities of 310 samples representing 221 individuals, 176 colonies and 95 species of ants. We found three distinct endosymbiont groups—Wolbachia (Alphaproteobacteria: Rickettsiales), Spiroplasma (Firmicutes: Entomoplasmatales),
    [Show full text]
  • 2010 FMNH REU Symposium Program
    Undergraduate Research Symposium 2010 Program and Abstracts Saturday, August 14 Lecture Hall II Undergraduate Research Projects 2010 Page 1 2010 REU Projects Name: Allen, Jessica Lynn (Eastern Washington University)^ Field Museum faculty mentor: Dr. Thorsten Lumbsch (Botany) Project: Understanding the Evolution of Secondary Chemistry in Lichens Name: Baker, Mairead Rebecca (Northwestern University)^ Field Museum faculty mentor: Dr. Margaret Thayer (Zoology, Insects), David Clarke, graduate student (University of Illinois at Chicago) Project: An Island Giant: Describing a New Species of Rove Beetle from the Chatham Islands Name: FitzPatrick, Vincent Drury (Northwestern University)^ Field Museum faculty mentor: Dr. Larry Heaney (Zoology, Mammals) Project: Evolution and Patterns of Reproduction in Philippine Mammals Name: Kasicky, Anna Therese (Saint Mary’s College of Maryland)* Field Museum faculty mentor: Dr. Rüdiger Bieler and Dr. André Sartori (Zoology, Invertebrates) Project: Shell Ultrastructure in Venus Clams Name: Loria, Stephanie Frances (Sewanee: The University of the South)^ Field Museum faculty mentor: Drs. Petra Sierwald and Thomas Wesener (Zoology, Insects) Project: Island Gigantism or Dwarfism? Phylogeny and Taxonomy of Madagascar's Chirping Giant Pill-Millipede Name: Melstrom, Keegan Michael (University of Michigan)^ Field Museum faculty mentor: Dr. Ken Angielczyk (Geology) Project: Morphological Integration of the Turtle Shell Name: Rudick, Emily Lauren (Temple University)^ Field Museum faculty mentor: Drs. Rüdiger Bieler and Sid Staubach (Zoology, Invertebrates) Project: Comparative Gill and Labial Palp Morphology ^The REU research internships are supported by NSF through an REU site grant to the Field Museum, DBI 08-49958: PIs: Petra Sierwald (Zoology) and Peter Makovicky (Geology). * Funded through NSF grant 09-18982 to R. Bieler #Funded through NSF DBI-1026783 to M.
    [Show full text]
  • James K. Wetterer
    James K. Wetterer Wilkes Honors College, Florida Atlantic University 5353 Parkside Drive, Jupiter, FL 33458 Phone: (561) 799-8648; FAX: (561) 799-8602; e-mail: [email protected] EDUCATION UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON, Seattle, WA, 9/83 - 8/88 Ph.D., Zoology: Ecology and Evolution; Advisor: Gordon H. Orians. MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY, East Lansing, MI, 9/81 - 9/83 M.S., Zoology: Ecology; Advisors: Earl E. Werner and Donald J. Hall. CORNELL UNIVERSITY, Ithaca, NY, 9/76 - 5/79 A.B., Biology: Ecology and Systematics. UNIVERSITÉ DE PARIS III, France, 1/78 - 5/78 Semester abroad: courses in theater, literature, and history of art. WORK EXPERIENCE FLORIDA ATLANTIC UNIVERSITY, Wilkes Honors College 8/04 - present: Professor 7/98 - 7/04: Associate Professor Teaching: Biodiversity, Principles of Ecology, Behavioral Ecology, Human Ecology, Environmental Studies, Tropical Ecology, Field Biology, Life Science, and Scientific Writing 9/03 - 1/04 & 5/04 - 8/04: Fulbright Scholar; Ants of Trinidad and Tobago COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY, Department of Earth and Environmental Science 7/96 - 6/98: Assistant Professor Teaching: Community Ecology, Behavioral Ecology, and Tropical Ecology WHEATON COLLEGE, Department of Biology 8/94 - 6/96: Visiting Assistant Professor Teaching: General Ecology and Introductory Biology HARVARD UNIVERSITY, Museum of Comparative Zoology 8/91- 6/94: Post-doctoral Fellow; Behavior, ecology, and evolution of fungus-growing ants Advisors: Edward O. Wilson, Naomi Pierce, and Richard Lewontin 9/95 - 1/96: Teaching: Ethology PRINCETON UNIVERSITY, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology 7/89 - 7/91: Research Associate; Ecology and evolution of leaf-cutting ants Advisor: Stephen Hubbell 1/91 - 5/91: Teaching: Tropical Ecology, Introduction to the Scientific Method VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY, Department of Psychology 9/88 - 7/89: Post-doctoral Fellow; Visual psychophysics of fish and horseshoe crabs Advisor: Maureen K.
    [Show full text]
  • Download PDF File
    Myrmecological News 24 43-69 Vienna, March 2017 Hotspots for symbiosis: function, evolution, and specificity of ant-microbe associa- tions from trunk to tips of the ant phylogeny (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) Jacob A. RUSSELL , Jon G. SANDERS & Corrie S. MOREAU Abstract Ants are among the world's most abundant and dominant non-human animals. Yet in spite of our growing knowledge of microbes as important associates of many animals, we have only begun to develop a broad understanding of the ants' microbial symbionts and their impacts across this diverse family (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). With an impressive degree of niche diversification across their ~ 140 million year history, evolution has performed a range of natural experiments among the ants, allowing studies of symbiosis through a lens of comparative biology. Through this lens it is gradually becoming clear that specialized symbioses can be gained or lost in conjunction with important shifts in ant biology, ranging from dietary ecology to investment in chemical defense. Viewing symbiosis across the ant phylogeny has also lent an additional insight – that the presence of specialized and ancient microbial symbionts is a patchily distributed attribute of ant biology. In fact, recent evidence suggests that several groups of ants harbor very few microbial symbionts – at least those of a eubacterial nature. These combined findings raise the possibility that the importance of symbiosis has fluctuated throughout the evolutionary history of the ants, making "hotspot" lineages stand out amongst potential symbiotic coldspots. In this review, we discuss these phenomena, highlighting the evidence for symbiont turnover and symbiotic hotspots that has accumulated largely over the past decade.
    [Show full text]
  • 46 Million Years of N-Recycling by the Core Symbionts of Turtle Ants
    bioRxiv preprint doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/185314; this version posted September 7, 2017. The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder. All rights reserved. No reuse allowed without permission. 1 Nitrogen conservation, conserved: 46 million years of N-recycling by the core symbionts of 2 turtle ants 3 4 Yi Hu1*, Jon G. Sanders2*, Piotr Łukasik1, Catherine L. D'Amelio 1, John S. Millar3, David R. 5 Vann4, Yemin Lan5, Justin A. Newton1, Mark Schotanus6, John T. Wertz6, Daniel J. C. 6 Kronauer7, Naomi E. Pierce2, Corrie S. Moreau8, Philipp Engel9, Jacob A. Russell1 7 8 1 Department of Biology, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA 9 2 Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 10 02138, USA 11 3 Department of Medicine, Institute of Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism, University of 12 Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA 13 4 Department of Earth and Environmental Science, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 14 19104, USA 15 5 School of Biomedical Engineering, Science and Health systems, Drexel University, 16 Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA 17 6 Department of Biology, Calvin College, Grand Rapids, MI 49546, USA 18 7 Laboratory of Social Evolution and Behavior, The Rockefeller University, 1230 York Avenue, 19 New York, NY 10065, USA 20 8 Department of Science and Education, Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, IL 60605, 21 USA 22 9 Department of Fundamental Microbiology, University of Lausanne, 1015 Lausanne, 23 Switzerland bioRxiv preprint doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/185314; this version posted September 7, 2017.
    [Show full text]
  • Influence of Host Phylogeny, Geographical Location and Seed Harvesting Diet on the Bacterial Community of Globally Distributed Pheidole Ants
    Influence of host phylogeny, geographical location and seed harvesting diet on the bacterial community of globally distributed Pheidole ants Cíntia Martins1,2 and Corrie S. Moreau2,3 1 Department of Biological Science, Campus Ministro Reis Velloso, Universidade Federal do Piauí, Parnaíba, Piauí, Brazil 2 Department of Science and Education, Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, IL, United States of America 3 Departments of Entomology and Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, United States of America ABSTRACT The presence of symbiotic relationships between organisms is a common phenomenon found across the tree of life. In particular, the association of bacterial symbionts with ants is an active area of study. This close relationship between ants and microbes can significantly impact host biology and is also considered one of the driving forces in ant evolution and diversification. Diet flexibility of ants may explain the evolutionary success of the group, which may be achieved by the presence of endosymbionts that aid in nutrition acquisition from a variety of food sources. With more than 1,140 species, ants from the genus Pheidole have a worldwide distribution and an important role in harvesting seeds; this behavior is believed to be a possible key innovation leading to the diversification of this group. This is the first study to investigate the bacterial community associated with Pheidole using next generation sequencing (NGS) to explore the influences of host phylogeny, geographic location and food preference in shaping the microbial community. In addition, we explore if there are any microbiota signatures related to granivory. We identified Proteobacteria and Firmicutes as the major phyla associated with these ants.
    [Show full text]
  • SANDERS-DISSERTATION-2015.Pdf (13.52Mb)
    Disentangling the Coevolutionary Histories of Animal Gut Microbiomes The Harvard community has made this article openly available. Please share how this access benefits you. Your story matters Citation Sanders, Jon G. 2015. Disentangling the Coevolutionary Histories of Animal Gut Microbiomes. Doctoral dissertation, Harvard University, Graduate School of Arts & Sciences. Citable link http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:17463127 Terms of Use This article was downloaded from Harvard University’s DASH repository, and is made available under the terms and conditions applicable to Other Posted Material, as set forth at http:// nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:dash.current.terms-of- use#LAA Disentangling the coevolutionary histories of animal gut microbiomes A dissertation presented by Jon Gregory Sanders to Te Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology in partial fulfllment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the subject of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology Harvard University Cambridge, Massachusetts April, 2015 ㏄ 2015 – Jon G. Sanders Tis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial- ShareAlike 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, PO Box 1866, Mountain View, CA 94042, USA. Professor Naomi E. Pierce Jon G. Sanders Professor Peter R. Girguis Disentangling the coevolutionary histories of animal gut microbiomes ABSTRACT Animals associate with microbes in complex interactions with profound ftness consequences. Tese interactions play an enormous role in the evolution of both partners, and recent advances in sequencing technology have allowed for unprecedented insight into the diversity and distribution of these associations.
    [Show full text]
  • Taxonomic Hierarchy of the Phylum Proteobacteria and Korean Indigenous Novel Proteobacteria Species
    Journal of Species Research 8(2):197-214, 2019 Taxonomic hierarchy of the phylum Proteobacteria and Korean indigenous novel Proteobacteria species Chi Nam Seong1,*, Mi Sun Kim1, Joo Won Kang1 and Hee-Moon Park2 1Department of Biology, College of Life Science and Natural Resources, Sunchon National University, Suncheon 57922, Republic of Korea 2Department of Microbiology & Molecular Biology, College of Bioscience and Biotechnology, Chungnam National University, Daejeon 34134, Republic of Korea *Correspondent: [email protected] The taxonomic hierarchy of the phylum Proteobacteria was assessed, after which the isolation and classification state of Proteobacteria species with valid names for Korean indigenous isolates were studied. The hierarchical taxonomic system of the phylum Proteobacteria began in 1809 when the genus Polyangium was first reported and has been generally adopted from 2001 based on the road map of Bergey’s Manual of Systematic Bacteriology. Until February 2018, the phylum Proteobacteria consisted of eight classes, 44 orders, 120 families, and more than 1,000 genera. Proteobacteria species isolated from various environments in Korea have been reported since 1999, and 644 species have been approved as of February 2018. In this study, all novel Proteobacteria species from Korean environments were affiliated with four classes, 25 orders, 65 families, and 261 genera. A total of 304 species belonged to the class Alphaproteobacteria, 257 species to the class Gammaproteobacteria, 82 species to the class Betaproteobacteria, and one species to the class Epsilonproteobacteria. The predominant orders were Rhodobacterales, Sphingomonadales, Burkholderiales, Lysobacterales and Alteromonadales. The most diverse and greatest number of novel Proteobacteria species were isolated from marine environments. Proteobacteria species were isolated from the whole territory of Korea, with especially large numbers from the regions of Chungnam/Daejeon, Gyeonggi/Seoul/Incheon, and Jeonnam/Gwangju.
    [Show full text]
  • Corrie Saux Moreau
    CORRIE S. MOREAU Cornell University Office: (607) 255-4934 Departments of Entomology Cell: (607) 280-0199 and Ecology & Evolutionary Biology Email: [email protected] 3136 Comstock Hall Twitter: @CorrieMoreau Ithaca, NY 14853 USA Website: www.moreaulab.org Born: New Orleans, Louisiana; U.S. Citizen RESEARCH INTERESTS Ecology and evolution of symbiosis; macroevolution; social insect evolution; host-microbe interactions; speciation and evolutionary diversification; evolution of gut microbiota; biogeography; phylogenetics/phylogenomics; molecular clocks and divergence dating; biodiversity genomics; ant-plant mutualisms; entomology; comparative biology; microbiomes. POSITIONS (2019 - present) Martha N. and John C. Moser Professor of Arthropod Biosystematics and Biodiversity, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY. (2019 - present) Director and Curator of the Cornell University Insect Collection, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY. (2017 - 2018) Robert A. Pritzker Director of the Integrative Research Center, Field Museum of Natural History Department of Science and Education, Chicago, IL. (2014 - 2018) Associate Curator/Professor (tenured), Field Museum of Natural History Department of Science and Education, Chicago, IL. (2008 - 2014) Assistant Curator/Professor (tenure-track), Field Museum of Natural History Department of Science and Education, Chicago, IL. (2008 - Present) Scientific Affiliate & Lecturer, University of Chicago Committee on Evolutionary Biology & Biological Sciences Division, Chicago, IL. (2007 - 2008) Miller Postdoctoral Fellow, University of California, Berkeley Integrative Biology / Environmental Science, Policy & Management Departments. EDUCATION (2003 - 2007) Ph.D. – Harvard University Organismic and Evolutionary Biology. Dissertation project on the evolution and diversification of ants. Advisors: Drs. Naomi E. Pierce and Edward O. Wilson. (2000 - 2003) M.Sc. – San Francisco State University / California Academy of Sciences Biology, Ecology and Systematics. Master’s thesis project on the molecular phylogeny of Dracula ants.
    [Show full text]