Dataset Information

Chemical Ecology of Streptomyces albidoflavus Strain A10 Associated with Carpenter Ant Camponotus vagus.

ABSTRACT: Antibiotics produced by symbiotic microorganisms were previously shown to be of crucial importance for ecological communities, including ants. Previous works on ant-actinobacteria symbiosis are mainly focused on farming ants, which use antifungal microbial secondary metabolites to control pathogens in their fungal gardens. In this work, we studied microorganisms associated with carpenter ant Camponotus vagus. Pronounced antifungal activity of isolated actinobacteria strain A10 was found to be facilitated by biosynthesis of the antimycin A complex, consisting of small hydrophobic depsipeptides with high antimicrobial and cytotoxic activity. The actinomycete strain A10 was identified as Streptomyces albidoflavus. We studied the antagonistic activity of strain A10 against several entomopathogenic microorganisms. The antifungal activity of this strain potentially indicates a defensive symbiosis with the host ant, producing antimycins to protect carpenter ants against infections. The nature of this ant-microbe association however remains to be established.

SUBMITTER: Baranova AA

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7763447 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Publications

Chemical Ecology of Streptomyces albidoflavus Strain A10 Associated with Carpenter Ant Camponotus vagus.

Baranova Anna A AA Chistov Alexey A AA Tyurin Anton P AP Prokhorenko Igor A IA Korshun Vladimir A VA Biryukov Mikhail V MV Alferova Vera A VA Zakalyukina Yuliya V YV

Microorganisms 20201209 12

Antibiotics produced by symbiotic microorganisms were previously shown to be of crucial importance for ecological communities, including ants. Previous works on ant-actinobacteria symbiosis are mainly focused on farming ants, which use antifungal microbial secondary metabolites to control pathogens in their fungal gardens. In this work, we studied microorganisms associated with carpenter ant Camponotus vagus. Pronounced antifungal activity of isolated actinobacteria strain A10 was found t ...[more]

PMID: 33316994

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Project description:Symbiotic microorganisms can have a profound impact on the host physiology and behavior, and novel relationships between symbionts and their hosts are continually discovered. A colony of social ants consists of various castes that exhibit distinct lifestyles and is, thus, a unique model for investigating how symbionts may be involved in host eusociality. Yet our knowledge of social ant-symbiont dynamics has remained rudimentary. Through 16S rRNA gene deep sequencing of the carpenter ant Camponotus japonicus symbiont community across various castes, we here report caste-dependent diversity of commensal gut microbiota and lineage divergence of "Candidatus Blochmannia," an obligate endosymbiont. While most prevalent gut-associated bacterial populations are found across all castes (Alphaproteobacteria, Gammaproteobacteria, Bacteroidetes, and Cyanobacteria), we also discovered uncultured populations that are found only in males (belonging to Corynebacteriales, Alkanindiges, and Burkholderia). Most of those populations are not detected in laboratory-maintained queens and workers, suggesting that they are facultative gut symbionts introduced via environmental acquisition. Further inspection of "Ca. Blochmannia" endosymbionts reveals that two populations are dominant in all individuals across all castes but that males preferentially contain two different sublineages that are diversified from others. Clearly, each caste has distinct symbiont communities, suggesting an overlooked biological aspect of host-symbiont interaction in social insects.IMPORTANCE Social animals, such as primates and some insects, have been shown to exchange symbiotic microbes among individuals through sharing diet or habitats, resulting in increased consistency of microbiota among social partners. The ant is a representative of social insects exhibiting various castes within a colony; queens, males, and nonreproductive females (so-called workers) show distinct morphologies, physiologies, and behaviors but tightly interact with each other in the nest. However, how this social context affects their gut microbiota has remained unclear. In this study, we deeply sequenced the gut symbiont community across various castes of the carpenter ant Camponotus japonicus We report caste-dependent diversity of commensal gut microbial community and lineage divergence of the mutualistic endosymbiont "Candidatus Blochmannia." This report sheds light on the hidden diversity in microbial populations and community structure associated with guts of males in social ants.

Dataset Information

Chemical Ecology of Streptomyces albidoflavus Strain A10 Associated with Carpenter Ant Camponotus vagus.

Publications

Chemical Ecology of <i>Streptomyces</i> <i>albidoflavus</i> Strain A10 Associated with Carpenter Ant <i>Camponotus vagus</i>.

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