Cargando…

Assembling microbial communities: a genomic analysis of a natural experiment in neotropical bamboo internodes

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...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Ahluwalia, Sonia, Holmes, Iris, von May, Rudolf, Rabosky, Daniel L., Davis Rabosky, Alison R.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: PeerJ Inc. 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9484453/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36132220
http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.13958
_version_ 1784791878588170240
author Ahluwalia, Sonia
Holmes, Iris
von May, Rudolf
Rabosky, Daniel L.
Davis Rabosky, Alison R.
author_facet Ahluwalia, Sonia
Holmes, Iris
von May, Rudolf
Rabosky, Daniel L.
Davis Rabosky, Alison R.
author_sort Ahluwalia, Sonia
collection PubMed
description 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.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-9484453
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2022
publisher PeerJ Inc.
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-94844532022-09-20 Assembling microbial communities: a genomic analysis of a natural experiment in neotropical bamboo internodes Ahluwalia, Sonia Holmes, Iris von May, Rudolf Rabosky, Daniel L. Davis Rabosky, Alison R. PeerJ Ecology 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. PeerJ Inc. 2022-09-16 /pmc/articles/PMC9484453/ /pubmed/36132220 http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.13958 Text en © 2022 Ahluwalia 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, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
spellingShingle Ecology
Ahluwalia, Sonia
Holmes, Iris
von May, Rudolf
Rabosky, Daniel L.
Davis Rabosky, Alison R.
Assembling microbial communities: a genomic analysis of a natural experiment in neotropical bamboo internodes
title Assembling microbial communities: a genomic analysis of a natural experiment in neotropical bamboo internodes
title_full Assembling microbial communities: a genomic analysis of a natural experiment in neotropical bamboo internodes
title_fullStr Assembling microbial communities: a genomic analysis of a natural experiment in neotropical bamboo internodes
title_full_unstemmed Assembling microbial communities: a genomic analysis of a natural experiment in neotropical bamboo internodes
title_short Assembling microbial communities: a genomic analysis of a natural experiment in neotropical bamboo internodes
title_sort assembling microbial communities: a genomic analysis of a natural experiment in neotropical bamboo internodes
topic Ecology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9484453/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36132220
http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.13958
work_keys_str_mv AT ahluwaliasonia assemblingmicrobialcommunitiesagenomicanalysisofanaturalexperimentinneotropicalbamboointernodes
AT holmesiris assemblingmicrobialcommunitiesagenomicanalysisofanaturalexperimentinneotropicalbamboointernodes
AT vonmayrudolf assemblingmicrobialcommunitiesagenomicanalysisofanaturalexperimentinneotropicalbamboointernodes
AT raboskydaniell assemblingmicrobialcommunitiesagenomicanalysisofanaturalexperimentinneotropicalbamboointernodes
AT davisraboskyalisonr assemblingmicrobialcommunitiesagenomicanalysisofanaturalexperimentinneotropicalbamboointernodes