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Distribution and dietary regulation of an associated facultative Rhizobiales-related bacterium in the omnivorous giant tropical ant, Paraponera clavata

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Abstract

We document a facultative Bartonella-like Rhizobiales bacterium in the giant tropical ant, Paraponera clavata. In a lowland tropical rainforest in Costa Rica, 59 colonies were assayed for the prevalence of the Bartonella-like bacterium (BLB), 14 of which were positive. We addressed three questions: First, how does the prevalence of BLB within colonies vary with environmental conditions? Second, how does diet affect the prevalence of BLB in P. clavata? Third, how does the distribution of BLB among colonies reflect ambient differences in food resources and foraging habits? A variety of environmental variables that may be predictive of the presence of BLB were measured, and diet manipulations were conducted to test whether the prevalence of BLB responded to supplemental carbohydrate or prey. The ambient frequency of BLB is much higher in young secondary forests, but is nearly absent from older secondary forests. The prevalence of BLB inside field colonies increased over the duration of a 2-week carbohydrate supplementation; however, water and prey supplementation did not alter the prevalence of BLB. The diets of the colonies located in young secondary forest, compared to other habitats, have a diet richer in carbohydrates and lower in prey. The abundance of carbohydrate, or the relative lack of N, in a colony’s diet influences the occurrence of the BLB microbe in P. clavata. As experimental diet manipulations can affect the facultative presence of an N-cycling microbe, a consistent diet shift in diet may facilitate the emergence of tighter symbioses.

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Acknowledgments

This project was conducted under the support of the National Science Foundation (OISE-1130156 and HRD-0802628). A. Haskell and F. Burt provided some early input, and we thank P. Tellez for the assistance in the field. We particularly thank Danilo Brenes and Bernal Matarrita for their consistent support in the lab and field.

Data accessibility

Sequences from five ants are deposited into GenBank, with the following accession numbers: KC478384, KC478385, KC478386, KC478387, and KC478388.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biology, California State University Dominguez Hills, 1000 E. Victoria St., Carson, CA, 90947, USA

    Hannah K. Larson, Erica L. Parra & Terrence P. McGlynn

  2. Biology Department, Occidental College, 1600 Campus Rd, Los Angeles, CA, 90041, USA

    Shana K. Goffredi & Terrence P. McGlynn

  3. Estación Biologica La Selva, Organización Para Estudios Tropicales, Puerto Viejo de Sarapiquí, Costa Rica

    Orlando Vargas

  4. Departamento de Bioquímica, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de Costa Rica, San Pedro, Montes de Oca, Costa Rica

    Adrián A. Pinto-Tomas

Authors
  1. Hannah K. Larson
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  2. Shana K. Goffredi
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  3. Erica L. Parra
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  4. Orlando Vargas
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  5. Adrián A. Pinto-Tomas
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  6. Terrence P. McGlynn
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Terrence P. McGlynn.

Additional information

Communicated by: Sven Thatje

Electronic supplementary material

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

Online Appendix A

Spatial distribution of colonies with and without BLB throughout La Selva Biological Station. (PDF 54 kb)

Online Appendix B

P. clavata-associated bacterium, in a transmission electron micrograph of a section of the midgut of an individual worker from a BLB+ colony. Scale bars are 2 υm and 0.5 υm, respectively, for panels A and B. (PDF 1573 kb)

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Larson, H.K., Goffredi, S.K., Parra, E.L. et al. Distribution and dietary regulation of an associated facultative Rhizobiales-related bacterium in the omnivorous giant tropical ant, Paraponera clavata . Naturwissenschaften 101, 397–406 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-014-1168-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-014-1168-0

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