PRJNA271685
Reproductive mode is associated with the bacterial microbiome of Potamopyrgus antipodarum, a New Zealand freshwater snail Targeted Locus (Loci)
It is increasingly evident that different reproductive strategies and the transition to asexuality are often associated with microbial symbionts. We used barcoded amplicon pyrosequencing of 16S rRNA genes to compare the microbiomes of 60 genetically and geographically distinct laboratory-cultured and field-collected Potamopyrgus antipodarum, a New Zealand freshwater snail. We included a diverse set of obligately sexual and asexual P. antipodarum, which allowed us to evaluate whether reproductive mode was associated with a particular bacterial community. We detected 2624 unique OTUs (97% DNA similarity) distributed across ~30 phyla, including the Proteobacteria, Cyanobacteria, Actinobacteria, Verrucomicrobacteria, Planctomycetes, and Firmicutes. While alpha diversity metrics varied little among individual samples, significant differences in bacterial community composition and structure were detected between sexual and asexual P. antipodarum (ANOSIM R-statistic=0.274, P-value=0.001). This analysis also revealed significant differences in the microbial communities of samples from different lakes (ANOSIM R-statistic=0.389, P-value=0.001) and different cultures or collections (ANOSIM R-statistic=0.716, P-value=0.001). The average dissimilarity of the bacterial communities between the sexual and asexual samples was 90%, largely driven by the presence of Rickettsiales bacteria in the somatic tissue of sexual snails and Rhodobacter in asexual snails. While teasing apart the effects of reproductive mode from population effects in P. antipodarum will require additional study, consistent differences in the microbial communities detected between sexuals and asexuals suggest that reproductive mode is associated with the bacterial microbiome of P. antipodarum.