Gut microbial compositions mirror caste-specific diets in a major lineage of social insects

Saria Otani; Mariya Zhukova; N'golo Abdoulaye Koné; Rafael Rodrigues da Costa; Aram Mikaelyan; Panagiotis Sapountzis; Michael Poulsen

doi:10.1111/1758-2229.12728

Gut microbial compositions mirror caste-specific diets in a major lineage of social insects

Saria Otani, Mariya Zhukova, N'golo Abdoulaye Koné, Rafael Rodrigues da Costa, Aram Mikaelyan, Panagiotis Sapountzis, Michael Poulsen^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Ecology and Evolution

11 Citations (Scopus)

42 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Social insects owe their ecological success to the division of labour between castes, but associations between microbial community compositions and castes with different tasks and diets have not been extensively explored. Fungus-growing termites associate with fungi to degrade plant material, complemented by diverse gut microbial communities. Here, we explore whether division of labour and accompanying dietary differences between fungus-growing termite castes are linked to gut bacterial community structure. Using amplicon sequencing, we characterize community compositions in sterile (worker and soldier) and reproductive (queen and king) termites and combine this with gut enzyme activities and microscopy to hypothesise sterile caste-specific microbiota roles. Gut bacterial communities are structured primarily according to termite caste and genus and, in contrast to the observed rich and diverse sterile caste microbiotas, royal pair guts are dominated by few bacterial taxa, potentially reflecting their specialized uniform diet and unique lifestyle.

Original language	English
Journal	Environmental Microbiology Reports
Volume	11
Issue number	2
Pages (from-to)	196-205
ISSN	1758-2229
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1111/1758-2229.12728
Publication status	Published - Apr 2019

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Gut microbial compositions mirror caste-specific diets in a major lineage of social insectsFinal published version, 2.68 MBLicence: CC BY

Cite this

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title = "Gut microbial compositions mirror caste-specific diets in a major lineage of social insects",

abstract = "Social insects owe their ecological success to the division of labour between castes, but associations between microbial community compositions and castes with different tasks and diets have not been extensively explored. Fungus-growing termites associate with fungi to degrade plant material, complemented by diverse gut microbial communities. Here, we explore whether division of labour and accompanying dietary differences between fungus-growing termite castes are linked to gut bacterial community structure. Using amplicon sequencing, we characterize community compositions in sterile (worker and soldier) and reproductive (queen and king) termites and combine this with gut enzyme activities and microscopy to hypothesise sterile caste-specific microbiota roles. Gut bacterial communities are structured primarily according to termite caste and genus and, in contrast to the observed rich and diverse sterile caste microbiotas, royal pair guts are dominated by few bacterial taxa, potentially reflecting their specialized uniform diet and unique lifestyle.",

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AU - Otani, Saria

AU - Zhukova, Mariya

AU - Koné, N'golo Abdoulaye

AU - Rodrigues da Costa, Rafael

AU - Mikaelyan, Aram

AU - Sapountzis, Panagiotis

AU - Poulsen, Michael

PY - 2019/4

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N2 - Social insects owe their ecological success to the division of labour between castes, but associations between microbial community compositions and castes with different tasks and diets have not been extensively explored. Fungus-growing termites associate with fungi to degrade plant material, complemented by diverse gut microbial communities. Here, we explore whether division of labour and accompanying dietary differences between fungus-growing termite castes are linked to gut bacterial community structure. Using amplicon sequencing, we characterize community compositions in sterile (worker and soldier) and reproductive (queen and king) termites and combine this with gut enzyme activities and microscopy to hypothesise sterile caste-specific microbiota roles. Gut bacterial communities are structured primarily according to termite caste and genus and, in contrast to the observed rich and diverse sterile caste microbiotas, royal pair guts are dominated by few bacterial taxa, potentially reflecting their specialized uniform diet and unique lifestyle.

AB - Social insects owe their ecological success to the division of labour between castes, but associations between microbial community compositions and castes with different tasks and diets have not been extensively explored. Fungus-growing termites associate with fungi to degrade plant material, complemented by diverse gut microbial communities. Here, we explore whether division of labour and accompanying dietary differences between fungus-growing termite castes are linked to gut bacterial community structure. Using amplicon sequencing, we characterize community compositions in sterile (worker and soldier) and reproductive (queen and king) termites and combine this with gut enzyme activities and microscopy to hypothesise sterile caste-specific microbiota roles. Gut bacterial communities are structured primarily according to termite caste and genus and, in contrast to the observed rich and diverse sterile caste microbiotas, royal pair guts are dominated by few bacterial taxa, potentially reflecting their specialized uniform diet and unique lifestyle.

U2 - 10.1111/1758-2229.12728

DO - 10.1111/1758-2229.12728

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Gut microbial compositions mirror caste-specific diets in a major lineage of social insects

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