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High-Quality Draft Genome Sequences of Eight Bacteria Isolated from Fungus Gardens Grown by Trachymyrmex septentrionalis Ants.

ABSTRACT: For their food source, Trachymyrmex septentrionalis ants raise symbiotic fungus gardens that contain bacteria whose functions are poorly understood. Here, we report the genome sequences of eight bacteria isolated from these fungus gardens to better describe the ecology of these strains and their potential to produce secondary metabolites in this niche.

SUBMITTER: Kopac S

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6211366 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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High-Quality Draft Genome Sequences of Eight Bacteria Isolated from Fungus Gardens Grown by Trachymyrmex septentrionalis Ants.

Kopac Sarah S Beatty Hannah H Gialopsos Philip P Huntemann Marcel M Clum Alicia A Spunde Alexander A Pillay Manoj M Palaniappan Krishnaveni K Varghese Neha N Mikhailova Natalia N Stamatis Dimitrios D Reddy T B K TBK Daum Chris C Ng Vivian V Ivanova Natalia N Kyrpides Nikos N Woyke Tanja T Klassen Jonathan L JL

Microbiology resource announcements 20180719 2

For their food source, Trachymyrmex septentrionalis ants raise symbiotic fungus gardens that contain bacteria whose functions are poorly understood. Here, we report the genome sequences of eight bacteria isolated from these fungus gardens to better describe the ecology of these strains and their potential to produce secondary metabolites in this niche. ...[more]

PMID: 30533809

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Project description:BackgroundCooperative benefits of mutualistic interactions are affected by genetic variation among the interacting partners, which may have consequences for interaction-specificities across guilds of sympatric species with similar mutualistic life histories. The gardens of fungus-growing (attine) ants produce carbohydrate active enzymes that degrade plant material collected by the ants and offer them food in exchange. The spectrum of these enzyme activities is an important symbiont service to the host but may vary among cultivar genotypes. The sympatric occurrence of several Trachymyrmex and Sericomyrmex higher attine ants in Gamboa, Panama provided the opportunity to do a quantitative study of species-level interaction-specificity.ResultsWe genotyped the ants for Cytochrome Oxidase and their Leucoagaricus fungal cultivars for ITS rDNA. Combined with activity measurements for 12 carbohydrate active enzymes, these data allowed us to test whether garden enzyme activity was affected by fungal strain, farming ants or combinations of the two. We detected two cryptic ant species, raising ant species number from four to six, and we show that the 38 sampled colonies reared a total of seven fungal haplotypes that were different enough to represent separate Leucoagaricus species. The Sericomyrmex species and one of the Trachymyrmex species reared the same fungal cultivar in all sampled colonies, but the remaining four Trachymyrmex species largely shared the other cultivars. Fungal enzyme activity spectra were significantly affected by both cultivar species and farming ant species, and more so for certain ant-cultivar combinations than others. However, relative changes in activity of single enzymes only depended on cultivar genotype and not on the ant species farming a cultivar.ConclusionsAnt cultivar symbiont-specificity varied from almost full symbiont sharing to one-to-one specialization, suggesting that trade-offs between enzyme activity spectra and life-history traits such as desiccation tolerance, disease susceptibility and temperature sensitivity may apply in some combinations but not in others. We hypothesize that this may be related to ecological specialization in general, but this awaits further testing. Our finding of both cryptic ant species and extensive cultivar diversity underlines the importance of identifying all species-level variation before embarking on estimates of interaction specificity.

Project description:Within animal-associated microbiomes, the functional roles of specific microbial taxa are often uncharacterized. Here, we use the fungus-growing ant system, a model for microbial symbiosis, to determine the potential defensive roles of key bacterial taxa present in the ants' fungus gardens. Fungus gardens serve as an external digestive system for the ants, with mutualistic fungi in the genus Leucoagaricus converting the plant substrate into energy for the ants. The fungus garden is host to specialized parasitic fungi in the genus Escovopsis. Here, we examine the potential role of Burkholderia spp. that occur within ant fungus gardens in inhibiting Escovopsis. We isolated members of the bacterial genera Burkholderia and Paraburkholderia from 50% of the 52 colonies sampled, indicating that members of the family Burkholderiaceae are common inhabitants in the fungus gardens of a diverse range of fungus-growing ant genera. Using antimicrobial inhibition bioassays, we found that 28 out of 32 isolates inhibited at least one Escovopsis strain with a zone of inhibition greater than 1 cm. Genomic assessment of fungus garden-associated Burkholderiaceae indicated that isolates with strong inhibition all belonged to the genus Burkholderia and contained biosynthetic gene clusters that encoded the production of two antifungals: burkholdine1213 and pyrrolnitrin. Organic extracts of cultured isolates confirmed that these compounds are responsible for antifungal activities that inhibit Escovopsis but, at equivalent concentrations, not Leucoagaricus spp. Overall, these new findings, combined with previous evidence, suggest that members of the fungus garden microbiome play an important role in maintaining the health and function of fungus-growing ant colonies. IMPORTANCE Many organisms partner with microbes to defend themselves against parasites and pathogens. Fungus-growing ants must protect Leucoagaricus spp., the fungal mutualist that provides sustenance for the ants, from a specialized fungal parasite, Escovopsis. The ants take multiple approaches, including weeding their fungus gardens to remove Escovopsis spores, as well as harboring Pseudonocardia spp., bacteria that produce antifungals that inhibit Escovopsis. In addition, a genus of bacteria commonly found in fungus gardens, Burkholderia, is known to produce secondary metabolites that inhibit Escovopsis spp. In this study, we isolated Burkholderia spp. from fungus-growing ants, assessed the isolates' ability to inhibit Escovopsis spp., and identified two compounds responsible for inhibition. Our findings suggest that Burkholderia spp. are often found in fungus gardens, adding another possible mechanism within the fungus-growing ant system to suppress the growth of the specialized parasite Escovopsis.

Dataset Information

High-Quality Draft Genome Sequences of Eight Bacteria Isolated from Fungus Gardens Grown by Trachymyrmex septentrionalis Ants.

Publications

High-Quality Draft Genome Sequences of Eight Bacteria Isolated from Fungus Gardens Grown by Trachymyrmex septentrionalis Ants.

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