scholarly journals Forfeiting the founder effect: turnover defines biofilm community succession

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Colin J. Brislawn ◽  
Emily B. Graham ◽  
Karl Dana ◽  
Peter Ihardt ◽  
Sarah J. Fansler ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTMicrobial community succession is a fundamental process that effects underlying functions of almost all ecosystems; yet the roles and fates of the most abundant colonizers are poorly understood. Does early abundance spur long term persistence? How do deterministic and stochastic processes influence the roles of founder species? We performed a succession experiment within a hypersaline microbial mat ecosystem to investigate how ecological processes contributed to the turnover of founder species. Bacterial and micro-eukaryotic founder species were identified from primary succession and tracked through a defined maturation period using 16S and 18S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing in combination with high resolution imaging that utilized stable isotope tracers to evaluate basic functional capabilities. The majority of the founder species did not maintain high relative abundances in later stages of succession. Turnover (versus nestedness) was the dominant process shaping the final community structure. We also asked if different ecological processes acted on bacteria versus eukaryotes during successional stages and found that deterministic and stochastic forces corresponded more with eukaryote and bacterial colonization, respectively. Our results show that taxa from different kingdoms, that share habitat in the tight spatial confines of a biofilm, were influenced by different ecological forces and time scales of succession.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hamed Azarbad ◽  
Julien Tremblay ◽  
Luke D. Bainard ◽  
Etienne Yergeau

AbstractNext-generation sequencing is recognized as one of the most popular and cost-effective way of characterizing microbiome in multiple samples. However, most of the currently available amplicon sequencing approaches are inherently limited, as they are often presented based on the relative abundance of microbial taxa, which may not fully represent actual microbiome profiles. Here, we combined amplicon sequencing (16S rRNA gene for bacteria and ITS region for fungi) with real-time quantitative PCR (qPCR) to characterize the rhizosphere microbiome of wheat. We show that the increase in relative abundance of major microbial phyla does not necessarily result in an increase in abundance. One striking observation when comparing relative and quantitative abundances was a substantial increase in the abundance of almost all phyla associated with the rhizosphere of plants grown in soil with no history of water stress as compared with the rhizosphere of plants growing in soil with a history of water stress, which was in contradiction with the trends observed in the relative abundance data. Our results suggest that the estimated absolute abundance approach gives a different perspective than the relative abundance approach, providing complementary information that helps to better understand the rhizosphere microbiome.


2010 ◽  
Vol 76 (9) ◽  
pp. 2791-2798 ◽  
Author(s):  
Goh Nishitani ◽  
Satoshi Nagai ◽  
Katsuhisa Baba ◽  
Susumu Kiyokawa ◽  
Yuki Kosaka ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT We analyzed cryptophyte nucleomorph 18S rRNA gene sequences retained in natural Myrionecta rubra cells and plastid 16S rRNA gene and psbA sequences retained in natural cells of several Dinophysis species collected from Japanese coastal waters. A total of 715 nucleomorph sequences obtained from 134 M. rubra cells and 564 plastid 16S rRNA gene and 355 psbA sequences from 71 Dinophysis cells were determined. Almost all sequences in M. rubra and Dinophysis spp. were identical to those of Teleaulax amphioxeia, suggesting that M. rubra in Japanese coastal waters preferentially ingest T. amphioxeia. The remaining sequences were closely related to those of Geminigera cryophila and Teleaulax acuta. Interestingly, 37 plastid 16S rRNA gene sequences, which were different from T. amphioxeia and amplified from Dinophysis acuminata and Dinophysis norvegica cells, were identical to the sequence of a D. acuminata cell found in the Greenland Sea, suggesting that a widely distributed and unknown cryptophyte species is also preyed upon by M. rubra and subsequently sequestered by Dinophysis. To confirm the reliability of molecular identification of the cryptophyte Teleaulax species detected from M. rubra and Dinophysis cells, the nucleomorph and plastid genes of Teleaulax species isolated from seawaters were also analyzed. Of 19 isolates, 16 and 3 clonal strains were identified as T. amphioxeia and T. acuta, respectively, and no sequence variation was confirmed within species. T. amphioxeia is probably the primary source of prey for M. rubra in Japanese coastal waters. An unknown cryptophyte may serve as an additional source, depending on localities and seasons.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin Xu Zhong ◽  
Anna Cho ◽  
Christophe M. Deeg ◽  
Amy M. Chan ◽  
Curtis A. Suttle

Abstract BackgroundThe microbiome affects the health of plants and animals, including humans, and has many biological, ecological and evolutionary consequences. Microbiome studies typically rely on sequencing ribosomal 16S RNA gene fragments, which serve as taxonomic markers for prokaryotic communities; however, for eukaryotic microbes this approach is compromised, because 18S rRNA gene sequences from microbial eukaryotes are swamped by contaminating host rRNA gene sequences. ResultsTo overcome this problem, we developed CRISPR-Cas Selective Amplicon Sequencing (CCSAS), a high-resolution and efficient approach for characterizing eukaryotic microbiomes. CCSAS uses taxon-specific single-guide RNA (sgRNA) to direct Cas9 to cut 18S rRNA gene sequences of the host, while leaving protistan and fungal sequences intact. We validated the specificity of the sgRNA on ten model organisms and an artificially constructed (mock) community of nine protistan and fungal pathogens. The results showed that >96.5% of host rRNA gene amplicons were cleaved, while 18S rRNA gene sequences from protists and fungi were unaffected. When used to assess the eukaryotic microbiome of oyster spat from a hatchery, CCSAS revealed a diverse community of eukaryotic microbes, typically with much less contamination from oyster 18S rRNA gene sequences than other methods using non-metazoan or blocking primers. However, each method revealed taxonomic groups that were not detected using the other methods, showing that a single approach is unlikely to uncover the entire eukaryotic microbiome in complex communities. To facilitate the application of CCSAS, we designed taxon-specific sgRNA for ~16,000 metazoan and plant taxa, making CCSAS widely available for characterizing eukaryotic microbiomes that have largely been neglected. ConclusionCCSAS provides a high-through-put and cost-effective approach for resolving the eukaryotic microbiome of metazoa and plants with minimal contamination from host 18S rRNA gene sequences. Keywords: Eukaryotic microbiome, 18S rRNA gene, Microeukaryote, CRISPR-Cas, Taxon-specific single-guide RNA, gRNA-target-site, CasOligo, CCSAS


2016 ◽  
Vol 82 (19) ◽  
pp. 5878-5891 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian M. Bradley ◽  
Ameet J. Pinto ◽  
Jeremy S. Guest

ABSTRACTThe use of high-throughput sequencing technologies with the 16S rRNA gene for characterization of bacterial and archaeal communities has become routine. However, the adoption of sequencing methods for eukaryotes has been slow, despite their significance to natural and engineered systems. There are large variations among the target genes used for amplicon sequencing, and for the 18S rRNA gene, there is no consensus on which hypervariable region provides the most suitable representation of diversity. Additionally, it is unclear how much PCR/sequencing bias affects the depiction of community structure using current primers. The present study amplified the V4 and V8-V9 regions from seven microalgal mock communities as well as eukaryotic communities from freshwater, coastal, and wastewater samples to examine the effect of PCR/sequencing bias on community structure and membership. We found that degeneracies on the 3′ end of the current V4-specific primers impact read length and mean relative abundance. Furthermore, the PCR/sequencing error is markedly higher for GC-rich members than for communities with balanced GC content. Importantly, the V4 region failed to reliably capture 2 of the 12 mock community members, and the V8-V9 hypervariable region more accurately represents mean relative abundance and alpha and beta diversity. Overall, the V4 and V8-V9 regions show similar community representations over freshwater, coastal, and wastewater environments, but specific samples show markedly different communities. These results indicate that multiple primer sets may be advantageous for gaining a more complete understanding of community structure and highlight the importance of including mock communities composed of species of interest.IMPORTANCEThe quantification of error associated with community representation by amplicon sequencing is a critical challenge that is often ignored. When target genes are amplified using currently available primers, differential amplification efficiencies result in inaccurate estimates of community structure. The extent to which amplification bias affects community representation and the accuracy with which different gene targets represent community structure are not known. As a result, there is no consensus on which region provides the most suitable representation of diversity for eukaryotes. This study determined the accuracy with which commonly used 18S rRNA gene primer sets represent community structure and identified particular biases related to PCR amplification and Illumina MiSeq sequencing in order to more accurately study eukaryotic microbial communities.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (7) ◽  
pp. 1402
Author(s):  
Sania Arif ◽  
Corinna Willenberg ◽  
Annika Dreyer ◽  
Heiko Nacke ◽  
Michael Hoppert

The hydrothermal steam environment of Sasso Pisano (Italy) was selected to investigate the associated microbial community and its metabolic potential. In this context, 16S and 18S rRNA gene partial sequences of thermophilic prokaryotes and eukaryotes inhabiting hot springs and fumaroles as well as mesophilic microbes colonising soil and water were analysed by high-throughput amplicon sequencing. The eukaryotic and prokaryotic communities from hot environments clearly differ from reference microbial communities of colder soil sites, though Ktedonobacteria showed high abundances in various hot spring samples and a few soil samples. This indicates that the hydrothermal steam environments of Sasso Pisano represent not only a vast reservoir of thermophilic but also mesophilic members of this Chloroflexi class. Metabolic functional profiling revealed that the hot spring microbiome exhibits a higher capability to utilise methane and aromatic compounds and is more diverse in its sulphur and nitrogen metabolism than the mesophilic soil microbial consortium. In addition, heavy metal resistance-conferring genes were significantly more abundant in the hot spring microbiome. The eukaryotic diversity at a fumarole indicated high abundances of primary producers (unicellular red algae: Cyanidiales), consumers (Arthropoda: Collembola sp.), and endoparasite Apicomplexa (Gregarina sp.), which helps to hypothesise a simplified food web at this hot and extremely nutrient-deprived acidic environment.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (5) ◽  
pp. 1051
Author(s):  
Yurie Taya ◽  
Gohta Kinoshita ◽  
Wessam Mohamed Ahmed Mohamed ◽  
Mohamed Abdallah Mohamed Moustafa ◽  
Shohei Ogata ◽  
...  

Ticks serve as important vectors of a variety of pathogens. Recently, the viral and prokaryotic microbiomes in ticks have been explored using next-generation sequencing to understand the physiology of ticks and their interactions with pathogens. However, analyses of eukaryotic communities in ticks are limited, owing to the lack of suitable methods. In this study, we developed new methods to selectively amplify microeukaryote genes in tick-derived DNA by blocking the amplification of the 18S rRNA gene of ticks using artificial nucleic acids: peptide nucleic acids (PNAs) and locked nucleic acids (LNAs). In addition, another PCR using non-metazoan primers, referred to as UNonMet-PCR, was performed for comparison. We performed each PCR using tick-derived DNA and sequenced the amplicons using the Illumina MiSeq platform. Almost all sequences obtained by conventional PCR were derived from ticks, whereas the proportion of microeukaryotic reads and alpha diversity increased upon using the newly developed method. Additionally, the PNA- or LNA-based methods were suitable for paneukaryotic analyses, whereas the UNonMet-PCR method was particularly sensitive to fungi. The newly described methods enable analyses of the eukaryotic microbiome in ticks. We expect the application of these methods to improve our understanding of the tick microbiome.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Baldassarre ◽  
Shani Levy ◽  
Rinat Bar-Shalom ◽  
Laura Steindler ◽  
Tamar Lotan ◽  
...  

Microbial communities confer multiple beneficial effects to their multicellular hosts. To evaluate the evolutionary and ecological implications of the animal-microbe interactions, it is essential to understand how bacterial colonization is secured and maintained during the transition from one generation to the next. However, the mechanisms of symbiont transmission are poorly studied for many species, especially in marine environments, where the surrounding water constitutes an additional source of microbes. Nematostella vectensis, an estuarine cnidarian, has recently emerged as model organism for studies on host-microbes interactions. Here, we use this model organism to study the transmission of bacterial colonizers, evaluating the contribution of parental and environmental transmission to the establishment of bacterial communities of the offspring. We induced spawning in adult male and female polyps of N. vectensis and used their gametes for five individual fertilization experiments. While embryos developed into primary polyps, we sampled each developmental stage and its corresponding medium samples. By analyzing the microbial community compositions of all samples through 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing, we showed that all host tissues harbor microbiota significantly different from the surrounding medium. Interestingly, oocytes and sperms are associated with distinct bacterial communities, indicating the specific vertical transmission of bacterial colonizers by the gametes. These differences were consistent among all the five families analyzed. By overlapping the identified bacterial ASVs associated with gametes, offspring and parents, we identified specific bacterial ASVs that are well supported candidates for vertical transmission via mothers and fathers. This is the first study investigating bacteria transmission in N. vectensis, and among few on marine spawners that do not brood larvae. Our results shed light on the consistent yet distinct maternal and paternal transfer of bacterial symbionts along the different life stages and generations of an aquatic invertebrate.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Weidong Chen ◽  
Donghui Wen

Abstract Background: Mangrove ecosystems are vulnerable due to the exotic Spartina alterniflora invasion in China. Large knowledge gaps remain with regard to archaeal and bacterial communities assembly processes and microbial interactions under S. alterniflora invasion. Here, using 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing, we investigated the assembly processes and co-occurrence relationships of the archaeal and bacterial communities under S. alterniflora invasion along the coastlines of Fujian province, southeast China.Results: We found that the overall archaeal and bacterial communities were driven predominantly by stochastic processes, and the relative role of stochasticity was stronger for bacteria than archaea. Co-occurrence network analysis showed that the network structure of bacteria was more complex than that of the archaea. Putative keystone taxa often had low relative abundances (conditionally rare taxa), suggesting conditionally rare taxa or low abundances taxa may significantly contribute to network stability. Moreover, we found that S. alterniflora invasion changed the microbial communities assembly and co-occurrence patterns, indicating that S. alterniflora affected the composition and stability of the microbial community.Conclusions: This study provides the first comparison in the biogeography and co-occurrence patterns of both archaea and bacteria in mangrove ecosystem. And this is the first exploration about the effect of S. alterniflora invasion on archaeal and bacterial ecological processes and co-occurrence patterns. Our study considers that the control of S. alterniflora invasion is important for mangrove ecosystem function and service.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (7) ◽  
pp. 1454
Author(s):  
Julia Moll ◽  
Friederike Roy ◽  
Claus Bässler ◽  
Jacob Heilmann-Clausen ◽  
Martin Hofrichter ◽  
...  

Nematodes represent a diverse and ubiquitous group of metazoans in terrestrial environments. They feed on bacteria, fungi, plants, other nematodes or parasitize a variety of animals and hence may be considered as active members of many food webs. Deadwood is a structural component of forest ecosystems which harbors many niches for diverse biota. As fungi and bacteria are among the most prominent decomposing colonizers of deadwood, we anticipated frequent and diverse nematode populations to co-occur in such ecosystems. However, knowledge about their ability to colonize this habitat is still limited. We applied DNA-based amplicon sequencing (metabarcoding) of the 18S rRNA gene to analyze nematode communities in sapwood and heartwood of decaying logs from 13 different tree species. We identified 247 nematode ASVs (amplicon sequence variants) from 27 families. Most of these identified families represent bacterial and fungal feeders. Their composition strongly depended on tree species identity in both wood compartments. While pH and water content were the only wood properties that contributed to nematodes’ distribution, co-occurring fungal and prokaryotic (bacteria and archaea) α- and β-diversities were significantly related to nematode communities. By exploring thirteen different tree species, which exhibit a broad range of wood characteristics, this study provides first and comprehensive insights into nematode diversity in deadwood of temperate forests and indicates connectivity to other wood-inhabiting organisms.


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