Bacterial communities associated with an island radiation of lichen-forming fungi

Abstract

Evolutionary radiations are one of the most striking processes biologists have studied in islands. A radiation is often sparked by the appearance of ecological opportunity, which can originate in processes like trophic niche segregation or the evolution of key innovations. Another recently proposed mechanism is facilitation mediated by the bacterial communities associated with the radiating species. Here we explore the role of the bacterial communities in a radiation of lichen-forming fungi endemic to Macaronesia. Bacterial diversity was quantified by high throughput sequencing of the V1–V2 hyper-variable region of 172 specimens. We characterized the taxonomic and phylogenetic diversity of the bacterial communities associated with the different species, tested for compositional differences between these communities, carried out a functional prediction, explored the relative importance of different factors in bacterial community structure, searched for phylosymbiosis and tried to identify the origin of this pattern. The species of the radiation differed in the composition of their bacterial communities, which were mostly comprised of Alphaproteobacteria and Acidobacteriia, but not in the functionality of those communities. A phylosimbiotic pattern was detected, but it was probably caused by environmental filtering. These findings are congruent with the combined effect of secondary chemistry and mycobiont identity being the main driver of bacterial community structure. Altogether, our results suggest that the associated bacterial communities are not the radiation’s main driver. There is one possible exception, however, a species that has an abnormally diverse core microbiome and whose bacterial communities could be subject to a specific environmental filter at the functional level.