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(My Microbiome) Would Walk 10,000 miles: Maintenance and Turnover of Microbial Communities in Introduced Dung Beetles

  • Invertebrate Microbiology
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Abstract

Host-associated microbes facilitate diverse biotic and abiotic interactions between hosts and their environments. Experimental alterations of host-associated microbial communities frequently decrease host fitness, yet much less is known about if and how host-microbiome interactions are altered by natural perturbations, such as introduction events. Here, we begin to assess this question in Onthophagus dung beetles, a species-rich and geographically widely distributed genus whose members rely on vertically transmitted microbiota to support normal development. Specifically, we investigated to what extent microbiome community membership shifts during host introduction events and the relative significance of ancestral associations and novel environmental conditions in the structuring of microbial communities of introduced host species. Our results demonstrate that both evolutionary history and local environmental forces structure the microbial communities of these animals, but that their relative importance is shaped by the specific circumstances that characterize individual introduction events. Furthermore, we identify microbial taxa such as Dysgonomonas that may constitute members of the core Onthophagus microbiome regardless of host population or species, but also Wolbachia which associates with Onthophagus beetles in a species or even population-specific manner. We discuss the implications of our results for our understanding of the evolutionary ecology of symbiosis in dung beetles and beyond.

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Data Availability

All 16S rRNA sequences are accessible on the NIH Sequence Read Archive (SRA) under the accession number PRJNA599403.

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Acknowledgments

We are deeply grateful to I. Piccini, B. Nervo, P. Gleeson, and T. Kijimoto for field collection and shipment of beetles and to A. Lindsey for generously sharing her time, expertise, and resources.

Funding

Support for this study was provided by National Science Foundation grants IOS 1256689 and 1901680 to APM as well as grant 61369 from the John Templeton Foundation. The opinions, interpretations, conclusions, and recommendations are those of the authors and are not necessarily endorsed by the National Science Foundation, or the John Templeton Foundation.

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  1. Department of Biology, Indiana University, 102 East Myers Hall, 915 East 3rd street, Bloomington, IN, 47405, USA

    Erik S. Parker, Irene L.G. Newton & Armin P. Moczek

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  1. Erik S. Parker
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  2. Irene L.G. Newton
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  3. Armin P. Moczek
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ESP, APM, and ILGN designed the experiments; ESP performed the experiments; ESP analyzed the data; ESP and APM wrote the paper with revisions from ILGN. All authors have approved the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Erik S. Parker.

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Parker, E.S., Newton, I.L. & Moczek, A.P. (My Microbiome) Would Walk 10,000 miles: Maintenance and Turnover of Microbial Communities in Introduced Dung Beetles. Microb Ecol 80, 435–446 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00248-020-01514-9

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