Host dietary specialization and neutral assembly shape gut bacterial communities of wild dragonflies

Author:

Deb Rittik1,Nair Ashwin12,Agashe Deepa1

Affiliation:

1. National Centre for Biological Sciences, TIFR, Bangalore, Karnataka, India

2. Shanmugha Arts, Science, Technology & Research Academy (SASTRA University), Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu, India

Abstract

Host-associated gut microbiota can have significant impacts on host ecology and evolution and are often host-specific. Multiple factors can contribute to such host-specificity: (1) host dietary specialization passively determining microbial colonization, (2) hosts selecting for specific diet-acquired microbiota, or (3) a combination of both. The latter possibilities indicate a functional association and should produce stable microbiota. We tested these alternatives by analyzing the gut bacterial communities of six species of wild adult dragonfly populations collected across several geographic locations. The bacterial community composition was predominantly explained by sampling location, and only secondarily by host identity. To distinguish the role of host dietary specialization and host-imposed selection, we identified prey in the guts of three dragonfly species. Surprisingly, the dragonflies–considered to be generalist predators–consumed distinct prey; and the prey diversity was strongly correlated with the gut bacterial profile. Such host dietary specialization and spatial variation in bacterial communities suggested passive rather than selective underlying processes. Indeed, the abundance and distribution of 72% of bacterial taxa were consistent with neutral community assembly; and fluorescent in situ hybridization revealed that bacteria only rarely colonized the gut lining. Our results contradict the expectation that host-imposed selection shapes the gut microbiota of most insects, and highlight the importance of joint analyses of diet and gut microbiota of natural host populations.

Funder

National Centre for Biological Sciences

Department of Science and Technology, India

Wellcome Trust/DBT India Alliance Fellowship

Publisher

PeerJ

Subject

General Agricultural and Biological Sciences,General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology,General Medicine,General Neuroscience

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