The microbiome of the ant-built home : the microbial communities of a tropical arboreal ant and its nest

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dc.creatorLucas, Jane
dc.creatorBill, Brian
dc.creatorStevenson, Bradley
dc.creatorKaspari, Michael
dc.date.accessioned2017-03-02T19:00:29Z
dc.date.available2017-03-02T19:00:29Z
dc.date.issued2017-02-22
dc.description.abstractMicrobial life is ubiquitous, yet we are just beginning to understand how microbial communities are assembled. We test whether relationships between ant microbiomes and their environments resemble patterns identified in the human home microbiome. We examine the microbial communities and chemical composition of ants, their waste, their nest, and the surrounding soil. We predicted that the microbiome of the canopy ant, Azteca trigona, like that of humans, represents a distinct, relatively invariant, community compared to the soil community. Because Azteca build aboveground nests constructed from ant exudates mixed with chewed plant fibers, we predicted that nest-associated microorganisms should reflect their ants, not the surrounding environment. The ant microbiome was distinct from the soil, but contrary to initial predictions, ant microbiomes varied dramatically across colonies. This variation was largely driven by the relative abundance of Lactobacillus, a genus frequently associated with hymenopteran diets. Despite the origin of nests and their means of construction, nest-associated microorganisms were most similar to the surrounding soil. The microbiota of Azteca ants is thus distinct, but dimorphic across colonies, for reasons likely due to inter-colony differences in diet; microbiotas of the nests however mirror the surrounding soil community, similar to patterns of human home microbiota.en_US
dc.description.peerreviewYesen_US
dc.description.sponsorshipThis work was supported by the National Science Foundation (EF—1065844) to Michael Kaspari, the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship (2014170874) to Jane Lucas, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute Short-Term Fellowship to Jane Lucas, and University of Oklahoma Biology Department Funds.en_US
dc.format.extent14 pages
dc.format.extent1,731,196 bytes
dc.format.mediumapplication.pdf
dc.identifier.citationLucas, J., B. Bill, B. Stevenson, and M. Kaspari. 2017. The microbiome of the ant-built home: the microbial communities of a tropical arboreal ant and its nest. Ecosphere 8(2):e01639. 10.1002/ecs2.1639en_US
dc.identifier.doi10.1002/ecs2.1639en_US
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/11244/49227
dc.languageen_USen_US
dc.relation.requiresAdobe Acrobat Reader
dc.rightsAttribution 3.0 United States*
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/us/*
dc.subject.keywordsAzteca trigona
dc.subject.lcshAnt communities
dc.subject.lcshAzteca (Insects) -- Ecology
dc.subject.lcshAzteca (Insects) -- Nests
dc.subject.lcshBacterial communities
dc.subject.lcshLactobacillus -- Ecology
dc.titleThe microbiome of the ant-built home : the microbial communities of a tropical arboreal ant and its nesten_US
dc.typeArticleen_US
dc.typetext
ou.groupCollege of Arts and Sciences::Department of Biologyen_US

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