1
|
Ahluwalia S, Holmes I, von May R, Rabosky DL, Davis Rabosky AR. Assembling microbial communities: a genomic analysis of a natural experiment in neotropical bamboo internodes. PeerJ 2022; 10:e13958. [PMID: 36132220 PMCID: PMC9484453 DOI: 10.7717/peerj.13958] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/21/2022] [Accepted: 08/06/2022] [Indexed: 01/19/2023] Open
Abstract
Microbes participate in ecological communities, much like multicellular organisms. However, microbial communities lack the centuries of observation and theory describing and predicting ecological processes available for multicellular organisms. Here, we examine early bacterial community assembly in the water-filled internodes of Amazonian bamboos from the genus Guadua. Bamboo stands form distinct habitat patches within the lowland Amazonian rainforest and provide habitat for a suite of vertebrate and invertebrate species. Guadua bamboos develop sealed, water-filled internodes as they grow. Internodes are presumed sterile or near sterile while closed, but most are eventually opened to the environment by animals, after which they are colonized by microbes. We find that microbial community diversity increases sharply over the first few days of environmental exposure, and taxonomic identity of the microbes changes through this time period as is predicted for early community assembly in macroscopic communities. Microbial community taxonomic turnover is consistent at the bacteria phylum level, but at the level of Operational Taxonomic Units (OTUs), internode communities become increasingly differentiated through time. We argue that these tropical bamboos form an ideal study system for microbial community ecology due to their near-sterile condition prior to opening, relatively consistent environment after opening, and functionally limitless possibilities for replicates. Given the possible importance of opened internode habitats as locations of transmission for both pathogenic and beneficial microbes among animals, understanding the microbial dynamics of the internode habitat is a key conservation concern for the insect and amphibian species that use this microhabitat.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Sonia Ahluwalia
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology & Museum of Zoology, University of Michigan – Ann Arbor, Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States,Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, Illinois, United States
| | - Iris Holmes
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology & Museum of Zoology, University of Michigan – Ann Arbor, Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States,Cornell Institute of Host Microbe Interactions and Disease and Department of Microbiology, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, United States
| | - Rudolf von May
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology & Museum of Zoology, University of Michigan – Ann Arbor, Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States,Biology Program, California State University, Channel Islands, Camarillo, California, USA
| | - Daniel L. Rabosky
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology & Museum of Zoology, University of Michigan – Ann Arbor, Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States
| | - Alison R. Davis Rabosky
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology & Museum of Zoology, University of Michigan – Ann Arbor, Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States
| |
Collapse
|