Unpredictable soil conditions can affect the prevalence of a microbial symbiosis

• Published in: PeerJ (San Francisco, CA) Vol. 12; p. e17445
• Main Authors: Scott, Trey J, Stephenson, Calum J, Rao, Sandeep, Queller, David C, Strassmann, Joan E
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States PeerJ Inc 20.05.2024
• Subjects: Burkholderiaceae - isolation & purification; Chlamydia - isolation & purification; Cooperation; Dictyostelium - microbiology; Dictyostelium discodieum; Evolutionary Studies; Microbiology; Microbiome; Paraburkholderia; Soil - chemistry; Soil Microbiology; Soil Science; Symbiosis; United States - epidemiology; Unpredictable environments; United States; Symbiosis; Paraburkholderia; Unpredictable environments; Cooperation; Dictyostelium discodieum; Microbiome
• ISSN: 2167-8359; 2167-8359
• DOI: 10.7717/peerj.17445

The evolution of symbiotic interactions may be affected by unpredictable conditions. However, a link between prevalence of these conditions and symbiosis has not been widely demonstrated. We test for these associations using social amoebae and their bacterial endosymbionts. commonly hosts endosymbiotic bacteria from three taxa: and Chlamydiae. Three species of facultative endosymbionts are the best studied and give hosts the ability to carry prey bacteria through the dispersal stage to new environments. and Chlamydiae are obligate endosymbiont lineages with no measurable impact on host fitness. We tested whether the frequency of both single infections and coinfections of these symbionts were associated with the unpredictability of their soil environments by using symbiont presence-absence data from isolates from 21 locations across the eastern United States. We found that symbiosis across all infection types, symbiosis with and Chlamydiae obligate endosymbionts, and symbiosis involving coinfections were not associated with any of our measures. However, unpredictable precipitation was associated with symbiosis in two species of , suggesting a link between unpredictable conditions and symbiosis.