Abstract
Different reproductive strategies and the transition to asexuality can be associated with microbial symbionts. Whether such a link exists within mollusks has never been evaluated. We took the first steps towards addressing this possibility by performing pyrosequencing of bacterial 16S rRNA genes associated with Potamopyrgus antipodarum, a New Zealand freshwater snail. A diverse set of 60 tissue collections from P. antipodarum that were genetically and geographically distinct and either obligately sexual or asexual were included, which allowed us to evaluate whether reproductive mode was associated with a particular bacterial community. 2624 unique operational taxonomic units (OTU, 97% DNA similarity) were detected, which were distributed across ~30 phyla. While alpha diversity metrics varied little among individual samples, significant differences in bacterial community composition and structure were detected between sexual and asexual snails, as well as among snails from different lakes and genetic backgrounds. The mean dissimilarity of the bacterial communities between the sexual and asexual P. antipodarum was 90%, largely driven by the presence of Rickettsiales in sexual snails and Rhodobacter in asexual snails. Our study suggests that there might be a link between reproductive mode and the bacterial microbiome of P. antipodarum, though a causal connection requires additional study.
Highlights
The production of offspring is one of the most important determinants of organismal fitness
Barcoded amplicon pyrosequencing targeting the bacterial 16S rRNA gene for the 60 P. antipodarum samples resulted in 258412 16S rRNA gene sequences
The sexual and asexual P. antipodarum included in our study differed with respect to the presence of Rickettsiales bacteria in the somatic tissue of sexual individuals and Rhodobacter in asexual individuals
Summary
The production of offspring is one of the most important determinants of organismal fitness. Despite the tight links between reproduction and fitness, the mechanisms of offspring production are characterized by remarkable inter- and intraspecific variation. It is increasingly evident that different reproductive strategies, such as host mating behaviour [1,2,3] and the production of viable offspring [4], can be associated with the composition of an organism’s microbiome. The transition from sexual to asexual reproduction can be driven by infection of sexual females with endosymbiotic bacteria [5,6,7,8,9,10], and links between asexuality and bacterial endosymbionts. The Microbiota of Sexual and Asexual Potamopyrgus antipodarum
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