@article{d2d8f083ee1948198f32635f348e0d1e,
title = "Social behaviour in bees influences the abundance of Sodalis (Enterobacteriaceae) symbionts",
abstract = "Social interactions can facilitate transmission of microbes between individuals, reducing variation in gut communities within social groups. Thus, the evolution of social behaviours and symbiont community composition have the potential to be tightly linked. We explored this connection by characterizing the diversity of bacteria associated with both eusocial and solitary bee species within the behaviourally variable family Halictidae using 16S amplicon sequencing. Contrary to expectations, we found few differences in bacterial abundance or variation between social forms; most halictid species appear to share similar gut bacterial communities. However, several strains of Sodalis, a genus described as a symbiont in a variety of insects but yet to be characterized in bees, differ in abundance between eusocial and solitary bees. Phylogenetic reconstructions based on whole-genome alignments indicate that Sodalis has independently colonized halictids at least three times. These strains appear to be mutually exclusive within individual bees, although they are not host-species-specific and no signatures of vertical transmission were observed, suggesting that Sodalis strains compete for access to hosts. The symbiosis between halictids and Sodalis therefore appears to be in its early stages.",
keywords = "Eusociality, Halictidae, Microbiome, Sodalis, Sweat bees, Symbiosis",
author = "Rubin, {Benjamin E.R.} and Sanders, {Jon G.} and Turner, {Kyle M.} and Pierce, {Naomi E.} and Kocher, {Sarah D.}",
note = "Funding Information: Financial support came from NSF IOS-1257543 to S.D.K. and N.E.P., a Putnam Expedition Fund from the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University to S.D.K. and N.E.P., and a USDA NIFA fellowship to S.D.K. We thank C. Baker, L. Henry and J. Russell for providing insightful comments on earlier versions of the manuscript. C. Moreau, L. Pallares, A. Sedghifar and Princeton{\textquoteright}s EvoGroup provided valuable feedback and discussion. We also thank E. Colbert, A. Finklestein, J. Squires, L. Tomkinson and J. Couget for their assistance with sample collection and preparation. Funding Information: Data accessibility. All sequencing data have been deposited in the Short Read Archive of NCBI under BioProject accession number PRJNA402054. OTU representative sequences and Sodalis genome assemblies and annotations are available via the Dryad Digital Repository: http://dx.doi.org/10.5061/dryad.0vt7nt0 [53]. Authors{\textquoteright} contributions. K.M.T., J.G.S. and S.D.K. carried out molecular laboratory work. B.E.R.R. and J.G.S. performed analyses. J.G.S., N.E.P. and S.D.K. conceived of, designed and coordinated the study. S.D.K. collected samples. B.E.R.R. and S.D.K. drafted the manuscript. All the authors contributed to the writing of the manuscript and gave their final approval for publication. Competing interests. We declare we have no competing interests. Funding. Financial support came from NSF IOS-1257543 to S.D.K. and N.E.P., a Putnam Expedition Fund from the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University to S.D.K. and N.E.P., and a USDA NIFA fellowship to S.D.K. Acknowledgements. We thank C. Baker, L. Henry and J. Russell for providing insightful comments on earlier versions of the manuscript. C. Moreau, L. Pallares, A. Sedghifar and Princeton{\textquoteright}s EvoGroup provided valuable feedback and discussion. We also thank E. Colbert, A. Finklestein, J. Squires, L. Tomkinson and J. Couget for their assistance with sample collection and preparation. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2018 The Authors.",
year = "2018",
month = jul,
day = "11",
doi = "10.1098/rsos.180369",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "5",
journal = "Royal Society Open Science",
issn = "2054-5703",
publisher = "The Royal Society",
number = "7",
}