The Potential Role of Environment in Structuring the Microbiota of Camponotus across Parts of the Body

Abstract

Several studies have attempted to understand what may influence the bacterial community of a host, but studies examining whether different bacterial species are found in different parts of the body of insects are limited. In the present study, we address the following questions: 1) How are bacterial communities distributed across different parts of the body (head, mesosoma, gaster) of Camponotus and 2) Is the diversity found explained by the environment in which these ants were collected? Our results were able to differentiate the bacterial communities present in the different parts of the body and can be explained in the following way: each part of the body has unique organs with different functions; and the complex proventriculum of Camponotus may be acting as a filter and structuring the bacterial community found in the gaster. In addition, an unexpected finding of the present study was the high diversity found associated with the head and mesosoma, and our findings were able to confirm that this diversity is associated with the environment where the ants were collected. Knowing more about the factors that can influence bacterial communities may reveal more about the importance of these associations in nature.