Microbiota of Daphnia resting stages

  1. A critical question in symbiosis research is where and how organisms obtain beneficial microbial symbionts in different ecological contexts. Microbiota of juveniles are often derived directly from their mother or from the immediate environment. The origin of beneficial symbionts, however, is less obvious in organisms with diapause and dispersal stages, such as plants with dormant seeds and animals in ephemeral or strongly seasonal habitats. In these cases, parents and offspring are separated in time and space, which may affect opportunities for both vertical and horizontal transmission of symbionts. 2. The planktonic crustacean Daphnia produces long-lasting resting eggs to endure winter freezing and summer droughts and requires microbiota for growth and reproduction. It is unknown how hatchlings from resting stages form associations with microbial consorts after diapause. 3. Using natural samples of D. magna resting eggs after several years of storage, we show that the total bacterial community derived from both the exterior and interior of the eggs’ ephippial cases is sufficiently beneficial to ensure normal Daphnia functioning in otherwise bacteria-free conditions. We do not find direct evidence that the required bacteria are of maternal origin, though sequencing reveals that the resting stage is accompanied by bacterial taxa previously found in association with adult animals.4. These findings suggest that while Daphnia are strongly dependent on environmental bacteria for normal functioning, host-bacteria associations are somewhat general and availability of specific bacteria is not a strong constraint on host ecology. Nevertheless, animals and microbes may be ecologically linked through co-dispersal.
Identifier
Source https://data.blue-cloud.org/search-details?step=~012DBD796C5625F8D0FE872B64241CC7737F76642C8
Metadata Access https://data.blue-cloud.org/api/collections/DBD796C5625F8D0FE872B64241CC7737F76642C8
Provenance
Instrument Illumina MiSeq; ILLUMINA
Publisher Blue-Cloud Data Discovery & Access service; ELIXIR-ENA
Contributor Universitaet Basel
Publication Year 2024
OpenAccess true
Contact blue-cloud-support(at)maris.nl
Representation
Discipline Marine Science
Spatial Coverage (7.589W, 47.560S, 11.706E, 48.207N)
Temporal Coverage Begin 2009-01-01T00:00:00Z
Temporal Coverage End 2015-01-01T00:00:00Z