10.5061/DRYAD.60008MJ
Szenteczki, Mark A.
University of Lausanne
Pitteloud, Camille
University of Lausanne
Casacci, Luca Pietro
Polish Academy of Sciences
Kešnerová, Lucie
University of Lausanne
Whitaker, Melissa R. L.
Harvard University
Engel, Philipp
University of Lausanne
Vila, Roger
Spanish National Research Council
Alvarez, Nadir
University of Lausanne
Data from: Bacterial communities within Phengaris (Maculinea) alcon
caterpillars are shifted following transition from solitary living to
social parasitism of Myrmica ant colonies
Dryad
dataset
2019
Maculinea alcon
16S amplicon sequencing
Phengaris alcon
Gentiana cruciata
myrmecophily
Lycaenidae
Holocene
Myrmica schencki
2019-05-01T11:30:08Z
2019-05-01T11:30:08Z
en
https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.5010
2914497974 bytes
1
CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication
Bacterial symbionts are known to facilitate a wide range of physiological
processes and ecological interactions for their hosts. In spite of this,
caterpillars with highly diverse life histories appear to lack resident
microbiota. Gut physiology, endogenous digestive enzymes, and limited
social interactions may contribute to this pattern, but the consequences
of shifts in social activity and diet on caterpillar microbiota are
largely unknown. Phengaris alcon caterpillars undergo particularly
dramatic social and dietary shifts when they parasitize Myrmica ant
colonies, rapidly transitioning from solitary herbivory to ant tending
(i.e., receiving protein‐rich regurgitations through trophallaxis). This
unique life history provides a model for studying interactions between
social living, diet, and caterpillar microbiota. Here, we characterized
and compared bacterial communities within P. alcon caterpillars before and
after their association with ants, using 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing and
quantitative PCR. After being adopted by ants, bacterial communities
within P. alcon caterpillars shifted substantially, with a significant
increase in alpha diversity and greater consistency in bacterial community
composition in terms of beta dissimilarity. We also characterized the
bacterial communities within their host ants (Myrmica schencki), food
plant (Gentiana cruciata), and soil from ant nest chambers. These data
indicated that the aforementioned patterns were influenced by bacteria
derived from caterpillars’ surrounding environments, rather than through
transfers from ants. Thus, while bacterial communities are substantially
reorganized over the life cycle of P. alcon caterpillars, it appears that
they do not rely on transfers of bacteria from host ants to complete their
development.
16S amplicon sequencing and qPCR dataThis archive contains 1) raw Illumina
MiSeq reads (300bp, PE, Reagent Kit v3) for all bacterial 16S V3/V4
amplicons used in our study, 2) metadata for each sample/individual,
formatted as a QIIME 1.9 mapping file, 3) preprocessed data and .biom
tables used to generate our results using phyloseq 1.22.3, and 4) raw data
from qPCR analyses used to generate our results. We used two databases,
greengenes 13_8 and SILVA NR Small Subunit v128 to assign taxonomy in our
study; the filenames of preprocessed data include the database used to
generate each
file.Szenteczki_et_al_P_alcon_16S_sequencing_and_qPCR_data.zip
Italian Alps
Spanish Pyrenees
Swiss Alps