title: Association of host and microbial species diversity across spatial scales in desert rodent communities.
abstract: Relationships between host and microbial diversity have important ecological and applied implications. Theory predicts that these relationships will depend on the spatio-temporal scale of the analysis and the niche breadth of the organisms in question, but representative data on host-microbial community assemblage in nature is lacking. We employed a natural gradient of rodent species richness and quantified bacterial communities in rodent blood at several hierarchical spatial scales to test the hypothesis that associations between host and microbial species diversity will be positive in communities dominated by organisms with broad niches sampled at large scales. Following pyrosequencing of rodent blood samples, bacterial communities were found to be comprised primarily of broad niche lineages. These communities exhibited positive correlations between host diversity, microbial diversity and the likelihood for rare pathogens at the regional scale but not at finer scales. These findings demonstrate how microbial diversity is affected by host diversity at different spatial scales and suggest that the relationships between host diversity and overall disease risk are not always negative, as the dilution hypothesis predicts.
authors.affiliation: Department of Life Sciences, Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva, Israel.
authors.forename: Yoni
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Gavish
authors.affiliation: Department of Life Sciences, Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva, Israel.
authors.forename: Hadar
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kedem
authors.affiliation: Department of Life Sciences, Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva, Israel.
authors.forename: Irit
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Messika
authors.affiliation: Department of Life Sciences, Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva, Israel.
authors.forename: Carmit
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Cohen
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN, United States of America.
authors.forename: Evelyn
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Toh
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, University of North Texas, Denton, TX, United States of America.
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Munro
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, University of North Texas, Denton, TX, United States of America; Department of Computer Science and Engineering, University of North Texas, Denton, TX, United States of America.
authors.forename: Qunfeng
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Dong
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, United States of America.
authors.forename: Clay
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Fuqua
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, United States of America.
authors.forename: Keith
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Clay
authors.affiliation: Department of Life Sciences, Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva, Israel.
authors.forename: Hadas
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Hawlena
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001419:Bacteria / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics; D044822:Biodiversity; D004463:Ecology; D004777:Environment; D005828:Genetics, Population; D054884:Host-Pathogen Interactions / Q000235:genetics*; D012377:Rodentia / Q000235:genetics / Q000382:microbiology*