Deterministic selection dominates microbial community assembly in termite mounds

Chen, Qing-Lin; Hu, Hang‐Wei; Yan, Zhenzhen; Li, Chaoyu; Nguyen, Bao‐Anh Thi; Sun, Anqi; Zhu, Yan; He, Ji‐Zheng

doi:10.1016/j.soilbio.2020.108073

Cited by 74 publications

(48 citation statements)

References 52 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The results revealed that differences in climatic properties could explain a larger proportion of the variations in fungal community composition than in bacterial community composition. These results are consistent with our previous study showing that stochastic processes contributed more to bacterial communities than to fungal communities, since bacterial community composition was less influenced by environmental factors especially temperature 7 . However, in the previous study, we found that deterministic processes dominated both bacterial and fungal community assemblies in soil ecosystems 7 .…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 93%

“…On the contrary, niche‐based theory considers that deterministic processes mediated by differences in abiotic environmental factors (e.g., pH and temperature) and biotic factors (including the competition, facilitation, and predation among microbes) determine the assembly of microbial communities 4,5 . After long‐standing debates, it is now widely accepted that in natural ecosystems, stochastic and deterministic processes act concurrently in regulating microbial community assemblies rather than being mutually exclusive 6–8 . Given that responses of microbial genes to environmental and ecological influences vary across communities and habitats, quantifying the relative contributions of stochastic and deterministic processes to microbial community assemblies is critical for understanding microbially driven ecosystem processes and functions 7–9 …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, Bahram et al found that in terrestrial ecosystems, fungal community had a more pronounced diversity pattern than bacterial community 10 . Chen et al 7 reported that in termite mounds, fungal community was more strongly impacted by deterministic processes than bacterial community. A potential explanation for these observations could be differences in the characteristics of bacteria and fungi.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Contrasting ecological processes shape the Eucalyptus phyllosphere bacterial and fungal community assemblies

Yan

Chen

et al. 2021

J of Sust Agri & Env

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Introduction: Phyllosphere microbiome is intrinsically linked to plant performance and ecosystem functioning. However, our knowledge about the role of ecological processes in shaping the biogeography of different phyllosphere microbial communities is scarce.Materials and Methods: Here, we compared the biogeographic patterns of bacterial and fungal communities in phyllosphere samples of plants belonging to the genus of Eucalyptus of the Myrtaceae family collected from an over 4000 km transect. We investigated the relative importance of two major ecosystem processes (stochastic vs. deterministic) in shaping phyllosphere microbial community assemblies.Results: Our results demonstrated that the neutral community model, which can quantify the degree of a community assembly determined by stochastic processes, explained 64.2% of the variations in bacterial community assembly, which had a normalized stochasticity ratio of 71.8%. These results suggest that the dominant role of stochastic processes in shaping bacterial community assembly. In contrast, phyllosphere fungal community assembly was mainly shaped by deterministic processes as revealed by a relatively small explanation rate of the neutral community model (48.7%) and a normalized stochasticity ratio of 25.1%. Variation partitioning analysis and random forest modelling results indicated that climatic factors, particularly mean annual precipitation and aridity index, were important in driving both bacterial and fungal biogeographic patterns in the phyllosphere. Edaphic factors, such as soil organic and mineral nitrogen content, were more closely related to fungal community assembly than to bacterial community assembly. The differential responses of bacterial and fungal communities to environmental factors could be attributed to the different traits of bacteria and fungi, that is, the higher potential dispersal rate and wider habitat niche of bacteria than fungi. Conclusion:Our findings demonstrated that phyllosphere bacterial and fungal communities followed distinct community assembly processes, which is supported by the 'size plasticity' hypothesis that smaller organisms (bacteria) are less influenced by environmental conditions and are more homogeneous across space than larger

show abstract

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 93%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Contrasting ecological processes shape the Eucalyptus phyllosphere bacterial and fungal community assemblies

Yan

Chen

et al. 2021

J of Sust Agri & Env

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Microbial communities of termite mounds are entirely distinct from those of termite guts (42)(43)(44)(45)(46). Whereas primarily anaerobic fermentative Firmicutes, Bacteroidota, and Spirochaetota dominate in guts, potentially aerobic respiratory Actinobacteriota, Proteobacteria, and Acidobacteriota reside in mounds.…”

Section: Significancementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Mound and soil communities appear to be closely related, reflecting mound material is primarily derived from surrounding soil. However, Actinobacteriota tend to be more abundant in mounds than soils (45,46), albeit with some exceptions reported (47). A cultivation-based study suggests some of these bacteria may serve as defensive symbionts for termites, specifically fungus-growing species, by producing antimicrobial compounds (48).…”

Section: Significancementioning

confidence: 99%

Termite gas emissions select for hydrogenotrophic microbial communities in termite mounds

Chiri

Nauer

Lappan

et al. 2021

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Organoheterotrophs are the dominant bacteria in most soils worldwide. While many of these bacteria can subsist on atmospheric hydrogen (H2), levels of this gas are generally insufficient to sustain hydrogenotrophic growth. In contrast, bacteria residing within soil-derived termite mounds are exposed to high fluxes of H2 due to fermentative production within termite guts. Here, we show through community, metagenomic, and biogeochemical profiling that termite emissions select for a community dominated by diverse hydrogenotrophic Actinobacteriota and Dormibacterota. Based on metagenomic short reads and derived genomes, uptake hydrogenase and chemosynthetic RuBisCO genes were significantly enriched in mounds compared to surrounding soils. In situ and ex situ measurements confirmed that high- and low-affinity H2-oxidizing bacteria were highly active in the mounds, such that they efficiently consumed all termite-derived H2 emissions and served as net sinks of atmospheric H2. Concordant findings were observed across the mounds of three different Australian termite species, with termite activity strongly predicting H2 oxidation rates (R2 = 0.82). Cell-specific power calculations confirmed the potential for hydrogenotrophic growth in the mounds with most termite activity. In contrast, while methane is produced at similar rates to H2 by termites, mounds contained few methanotrophs and were net sources of methane. Altogether, these findings provide further evidence of a highly responsive terrestrial sink for H2 but not methane and suggest H2 availability shapes composition and activity of microbial communities. They also reveal a unique arthropod–bacteria interaction dependent on H2 transfer between host-associated and free-living microbial communities.

show abstract

Are plant traits drivers of endophytic communities in seasonally flooded tropical forests?

Boisseaux,

Troispoux,

Bordes

et al. 2024

American J of Botany

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

PremiseIn the Amazon basin, seasonally flooded (SF) forests offer varying water constraints, providing an excellent way to investigate the role of habitat selection on microbial communities within plants. However, variations in the microbial community among host plants cannot solely be attributed to environmental factors, and how plant traits contribute to microbial assemblages remains an open question.MethodsWe described leaf‐ and root‐associated microbial communities using ITS2 and 16 S high‐throughput sequencing and investigated the stochastic‐deterministic balance shaping these community assemblies using two null models. Plant ecophysiological functioning was evaluated by focusing on 10 leaf and root traits in 72 seedlings, belonging to seven tropical SF tree species in French Guiana. We then analyzed how root and leaf traits drove the assembly of endophytic communities.ResultsWhile both stochastic and deterministic processes governed the endophyte assembly in the leaves and roots, stochasticity prevailed. Discrepancies were found between fungi and bacteria, highlighting that these microorganisms have distinct ecological strategies within plants. Traits, especially leaf traits, host species and spatial predictors better explained diversity than composition, but they were modest predictors overall.ConclusionsThis study widens our knowledge about tree species in SF forests, a habitat sensitive to climate change, through the combined analyses of their associated microbial communities with functional traits. We emphasize the need to investigate other plant traits to better disentangle the drivers of the relationship between seedlings and their associated microbiomes, ultimately enhancing their adaptive capacities to climate change.

show abstract

Deterministic selection dominates microbial community assembly in termite mounds

Cited by 74 publications

References 52 publications

Contrasting ecological processes shape the Eucalyptus phyllosphere bacterial and fungal community assemblies

Contrasting ecological processes shape the Eucalyptus phyllosphere bacterial and fungal community assemblies

Termite gas emissions select for hydrogenotrophic microbial communities in termite mounds

Are plant traits drivers of endophytic communities in seasonally flooded tropical forests?

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About