Social organization and physical environment shape the microbiome of harvester ants.

ABSTRACT: All animals harbor microbiomes, which are obtained from the surrounding environment and are impacted by host behavior and life stage. To determine how two non-mutually exclusive drivers - physical environment and social organization - affect an organism's microbiome, we examined the bacterial communities within and around nests of harvester ants (Veromessor andrei). We collected soil and nest content samples from five different ant nests. We used 16S rRNA gene sequencing and calculated alpha and beta diversity to compare bacterial diversity and community composition across samples. To test the hypotheses that physical environment and/or social organization impact ant colonies' community of microbes we compared our samples across (i) sample types (ants, brood, seeds and reproductives (winge

SUBMITTER: Gamboa DA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11921602 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature