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Weight and protozoa number but not bacteria diversity are associated with successful pair formation of dealates in the Formosan subterranean termite, Coptotermes formosanus

New colonies of Formosan subterranean termites are founded by monogamous pairs. During swarming season, alates (winged reproductives) leave their parental colony. After swarming, they drop to the ground, shed their wings, and male and female dealates find suitable nesting sites where they mate and b...

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Autores principales: Chen, Junyan, Setia, Garima, Lin, Li-Hsiang, Sun, Qian, Husseneder, Claudia
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10642788/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37956140
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0293813
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author Chen, Junyan
Setia, Garima
Lin, Li-Hsiang
Sun, Qian
Husseneder, Claudia
author_facet Chen, Junyan
Setia, Garima
Lin, Li-Hsiang
Sun, Qian
Husseneder, Claudia
author_sort Chen, Junyan
collection PubMed
description New colonies of Formosan subterranean termites are founded by monogamous pairs. During swarming season, alates (winged reproductives) leave their parental colony. After swarming, they drop to the ground, shed their wings, and male and female dealates find suitable nesting sites where they mate and become kings and queens of new colonies. The first generation of offspring is entirely dependent on the nutritional resources of the founder pair consisting of the fat and protein reserves of the dealates and their microbiota, which include the cellulose-digesting protozoa and diverse bacteria. Since termite kings and queens can live for decades, mate for life and colony success is linked to those initial resources, we hypothesized that gut microbiota of founders affect pair formation. To test this hypothesis, we collected pairs found in nest chambers and single male and female dealates from four swarm populations. The association of three factors (pairing status, sex of the dealates and population) with dealate weights, total protozoa, and protozoa Pseudotrichonympha grassii numbers in dealate hindguts was determined. In addition, Illumina 16S rRNA gene sequencing and the QIIME2 pipeline were used to determine the impact of those three factors on gut bacteria diversity of dealates. Here we report that pairing status was significantly affected by weight and total protozoa numbers, but not by P. grassii numbers and bacteria diversity. Weight and total protozoa numbers were higher in paired compared to single dealates. Males contained significantly higher P. grassii numbers and bacteria richness and marginally higher phylogenetic diversity despite having lower weights than females. In conclusion, this study showed that dealates with high body weight and protozoa numbers are more likely to pair and become colony founders, probably because of competitive advantage. The combined nutritional resources provided by body weight and protozoa symbionts of the parents are important for successful colony foundation and development.
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spelling pubmed-106427882023-11-14 Weight and protozoa number but not bacteria diversity are associated with successful pair formation of dealates in the Formosan subterranean termite, Coptotermes formosanus Chen, Junyan Setia, Garima Lin, Li-Hsiang Sun, Qian Husseneder, Claudia PLoS One Research Article New colonies of Formosan subterranean termites are founded by monogamous pairs. During swarming season, alates (winged reproductives) leave their parental colony. After swarming, they drop to the ground, shed their wings, and male and female dealates find suitable nesting sites where they mate and become kings and queens of new colonies. The first generation of offspring is entirely dependent on the nutritional resources of the founder pair consisting of the fat and protein reserves of the dealates and their microbiota, which include the cellulose-digesting protozoa and diverse bacteria. Since termite kings and queens can live for decades, mate for life and colony success is linked to those initial resources, we hypothesized that gut microbiota of founders affect pair formation. To test this hypothesis, we collected pairs found in nest chambers and single male and female dealates from four swarm populations. The association of three factors (pairing status, sex of the dealates and population) with dealate weights, total protozoa, and protozoa Pseudotrichonympha grassii numbers in dealate hindguts was determined. In addition, Illumina 16S rRNA gene sequencing and the QIIME2 pipeline were used to determine the impact of those three factors on gut bacteria diversity of dealates. Here we report that pairing status was significantly affected by weight and total protozoa numbers, but not by P. grassii numbers and bacteria diversity. Weight and total protozoa numbers were higher in paired compared to single dealates. Males contained significantly higher P. grassii numbers and bacteria richness and marginally higher phylogenetic diversity despite having lower weights than females. In conclusion, this study showed that dealates with high body weight and protozoa numbers are more likely to pair and become colony founders, probably because of competitive advantage. The combined nutritional resources provided by body weight and protozoa symbionts of the parents are important for successful colony foundation and development. Public Library of Science 2023-11-13 /pmc/articles/PMC10642788/ /pubmed/37956140 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0293813 Text en © 2023 Chen et al https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Chen, Junyan
Setia, Garima
Lin, Li-Hsiang
Sun, Qian
Husseneder, Claudia
Weight and protozoa number but not bacteria diversity are associated with successful pair formation of dealates in the Formosan subterranean termite, Coptotermes formosanus
title Weight and protozoa number but not bacteria diversity are associated with successful pair formation of dealates in the Formosan subterranean termite, Coptotermes formosanus
title_full Weight and protozoa number but not bacteria diversity are associated with successful pair formation of dealates in the Formosan subterranean termite, Coptotermes formosanus
title_fullStr Weight and protozoa number but not bacteria diversity are associated with successful pair formation of dealates in the Formosan subterranean termite, Coptotermes formosanus
title_full_unstemmed Weight and protozoa number but not bacteria diversity are associated with successful pair formation of dealates in the Formosan subterranean termite, Coptotermes formosanus
title_short Weight and protozoa number but not bacteria diversity are associated with successful pair formation of dealates in the Formosan subterranean termite, Coptotermes formosanus
title_sort weight and protozoa number but not bacteria diversity are associated with successful pair formation of dealates in the formosan subterranean termite, coptotermes formosanus
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10642788/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37956140
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0293813
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