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The Diversity and Distribution of Wolbachia, Rhizobiales, and Ophiocordyceps Within the Widespread Neotropical Turtle Ant, Cephalotes atratus (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)

  • Ecology, Behavior and Bionomics
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Abstract

Ants are an ecologically and evolutionarily diverse group, and they harbor a wide range of symbiotic microbial communities that often greatly affect their biology. Turtle ants (genus Cephalotes) engage in mutualistic relationships with gut bacteria and are exploited by microbial parasites. Studies have shown that associations among these microbial lineages and the turtle ant hosts vary geographically. However, these studies have been limited, and thorough within-species analyses of the variation and structure of these microbial communities have yet to be conducted. The giant turtle ant, Cephalotes atratus (Linnaeus 1758), is a geographically widespread, genetically diverse Neotropical species that has been sampled extensively across its geographic range, making it ideal for analysis of microbial associations. In this study, we verified the presence, genetic variation, and geographic patterns at the individual, colony, and population level of three microbial groups associated with the giant turtle ant: Wolbachia, a genus of facultative bacteria which are often parasitic, affecting host reproduction; Rhizobiales, a mutualistic order of bacteria hypothesized to be an obligate nutritional symbiont in turtle ants; and Ophiocordyceps, a genus of endoparasitic fungi infecting many arthropod species by manipulating their behavior for fungal reproduction. In this study, we found varying degrees of prevalence for two distantly related genotypes (haplogroups) of Wolbachia and high degree of prevalence of Rhizobiales across colonies with little genetic variation. In addition, we found low occurrence of Ophiocordyceps. This study highlights a key first step in understanding the diversity, distribution, and prevalence of the microbial community of C. atratus.

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Competing Interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Funding

We thank the National Science Foundation Research Experience for Undergraduates site grant program (NSF DBI 1559779) for support of D.D.R. and C.S.M. thanks the National Science Foundation (NSF DEB 1900357) for support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Science and Education, Integrative Research Center, Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, IL, USA

    D. D. Reeves, S. L. Price, M. O. Ramalho & C. S. Moreau

  2. Department of Entomology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA

    M. O. Ramalho & C. S. Moreau

  3. Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA

    C. S. Moreau

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  1. D. D. Reeves
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  2. S. L. Price
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  4. C. S. Moreau
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Contributions

Destiny D. Reeves, Shauna L. Price, and Corrie S. Moreau contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection, and analysis were performed by Destiny D. Reeves, Shauna L. Price, and Manuela O. Ramalho. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Destiny D. Reeves and Shauna L. Price, and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to M. O. Ramalho.

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All authors declare that any authorization needed for collecting biological specimens on environmental protected areas has been obtained from government authorities of the countries where collecting has taken place.

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Reeves, D.D., Price, S.L., Ramalho, M.O. et al. The Diversity and Distribution of Wolbachia, Rhizobiales, and Ophiocordyceps Within the Widespread Neotropical Turtle Ant, Cephalotes atratus (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Neotrop Entomol 49, 52–60 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13744-019-00735-z

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