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Elevational Changes in Bacterial Microbiota Structure and Diversity in an Arthropod-Disease Vector
Environmental conditions change rapidly along elevational gradients and have been found to affect community composition in macroscopic taxa, with lower diversity typically observed at higher elevations. In contrast, microbial community responses to elevation are still poorly understood. Specifically...
Autores principales: | , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Springer US
2021
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9622521/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34599659 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00248-021-01879-5 |
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author | Aivelo, Tuomas Lemoine, Mélissa Tschirren, Barbara |
author_facet | Aivelo, Tuomas Lemoine, Mélissa Tschirren, Barbara |
author_sort | Aivelo, Tuomas |
collection | PubMed |
description | Environmental conditions change rapidly along elevational gradients and have been found to affect community composition in macroscopic taxa, with lower diversity typically observed at higher elevations. In contrast, microbial community responses to elevation are still poorly understood. Specifically, the effects of elevation on vector-associated microbiota have not been studied to date, even though the within-vector microbial community is known to influence vector competence for a range of zoonotic pathogens. Here we characterize the structure and diversity of the bacterial microbiota in an important zoonotic disease vector, the sheep tick Ixodes ricinus, along replicated elevational gradient (630–1673 m) in the Swiss Alps. 16S rRNA sequencing of the whole within-tick bacterial microbiota of questing nymphs and adults revealed a decrease in Faith’s phylogenetic microbial alpha diversity with increasing elevation, while beta diversity analyses revealed a lower variation in microbial community composition at higher elevations. We also found a higher microbial diversity later in the season and significant differences in microbial diversity among tick life stages and sexes, with lowest microbial alpha diversity observed in adult females. No associations between tick genetic diversity and bacterial diversity were observed. Our study demonstrates systematic changes in tick bacterial microbiota diversity along elevational gradients. The observed patterns mirror diversity changes along elevational gradients typically observed in macroscopic taxa, and they highlight the key role of environmental factors in shaping within-host microbial communities in ectotherms. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s00248-021-01879-5. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-9622521 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2021 |
publisher | Springer US |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-96225212022-11-02 Elevational Changes in Bacterial Microbiota Structure and Diversity in an Arthropod-Disease Vector Aivelo, Tuomas Lemoine, Mélissa Tschirren, Barbara Microb Ecol Invertebrate Microbiology Environmental conditions change rapidly along elevational gradients and have been found to affect community composition in macroscopic taxa, with lower diversity typically observed at higher elevations. In contrast, microbial community responses to elevation are still poorly understood. Specifically, the effects of elevation on vector-associated microbiota have not been studied to date, even though the within-vector microbial community is known to influence vector competence for a range of zoonotic pathogens. Here we characterize the structure and diversity of the bacterial microbiota in an important zoonotic disease vector, the sheep tick Ixodes ricinus, along replicated elevational gradient (630–1673 m) in the Swiss Alps. 16S rRNA sequencing of the whole within-tick bacterial microbiota of questing nymphs and adults revealed a decrease in Faith’s phylogenetic microbial alpha diversity with increasing elevation, while beta diversity analyses revealed a lower variation in microbial community composition at higher elevations. We also found a higher microbial diversity later in the season and significant differences in microbial diversity among tick life stages and sexes, with lowest microbial alpha diversity observed in adult females. No associations between tick genetic diversity and bacterial diversity were observed. Our study demonstrates systematic changes in tick bacterial microbiota diversity along elevational gradients. The observed patterns mirror diversity changes along elevational gradients typically observed in macroscopic taxa, and they highlight the key role of environmental factors in shaping within-host microbial communities in ectotherms. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s00248-021-01879-5. Springer US 2021-10-02 2022 /pmc/articles/PMC9622521/ /pubmed/34599659 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00248-021-01879-5 Text en © The Author(s) 2021 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) . |
spellingShingle | Invertebrate Microbiology Aivelo, Tuomas Lemoine, Mélissa Tschirren, Barbara Elevational Changes in Bacterial Microbiota Structure and Diversity in an Arthropod-Disease Vector |
title | Elevational Changes in Bacterial Microbiota Structure and Diversity in an Arthropod-Disease Vector |
title_full | Elevational Changes in Bacterial Microbiota Structure and Diversity in an Arthropod-Disease Vector |
title_fullStr | Elevational Changes in Bacterial Microbiota Structure and Diversity in an Arthropod-Disease Vector |
title_full_unstemmed | Elevational Changes in Bacterial Microbiota Structure and Diversity in an Arthropod-Disease Vector |
title_short | Elevational Changes in Bacterial Microbiota Structure and Diversity in an Arthropod-Disease Vector |
title_sort | elevational changes in bacterial microbiota structure and diversity in an arthropod-disease vector |
topic | Invertebrate Microbiology |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9622521/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34599659 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00248-021-01879-5 |
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