DOI: 10.5061/dryad.c4f03
title: Data from: Specificity and stability of the Acromyrmex-Pseudonocardia symbiosis

description: The stability of mutualistic interactions is likely to be affected by the
 genetic diversity of symbionts that compete for the same functional niche.
 Fungus-growing (attine) ants have multiple complex symbioses and thus
 provide ample opportunities to address questions of symbiont specificity
 and diversity. Among the partners are Actinobacteria of the genus
 Pseudonocardia that are maintained on the ant cuticle to produce
 antibiotics, primarily against a fungal parasite of the mutualistic
 gardens. The symbiosis has been assumed to be a hallmark of evolutionary
 stability, but this notion has been challenged by culturing and sequencing
 data indicating an unpredictably high diversity. We used 454
 pyrosequencing of 16S rRNA to estimate the diversity of the cuticular
 bacterial community of the leaf-cutting ant Acromyrmex echinatior and
 other fungus-growing ants from Gamboa, Panama. Both field and laboratory
 samples of the same colonies were collected, the latter after colonies had
 been kept under laboratory conditions for up to 10 years. We show that
 bacterial communities are highly colony-specific and stable over time. The
 majority of colonies (25/26) had a single dominant Pseudonocardia strain,
 and only two strains were found in the Gamboa population across 17 years,
 confirming an earlier study. The microbial community on newly hatched ants
 consisted almost exclusively of a single strain of Pseudonocardia while
 other Actinobacteria were identified on older, foraging ants in varying
 but usually much lower abundances. These findings are consistent with
 recent theory predicting that mixtures of antibiotic-producing bacteria
 can remain mutualistic when dominated by a single vertically transmitted
 and resource-demanding strain.
description: OTUclassificationFollowing 454 sequencing of the 16s rDNA region of bacterial communities of 59 samples of attine ants, 993 bacterial OTUs (operational taxonomic units) were identified. The file contains the taxonomic classification of these OTUs. Each OTU is denoted by a number (1-993), the number of reads contributing to the OTU and its taxonomic classification.ReadDistributionAllOTUsFollowing 454 sequencing of the 16s rDNA region of bacterial communities of 59 samples of attine ants, 993 bacterial OTUs (operational taxonomic units) were identified. The file shows the distribution of sequencing reads for all OTUs across the 59 samples.AlignmentFollowing 454 sequencing of the 16s rDNA region of bacterial communities of 59 samples of attine ants, 35,063 unique sequences were identified after data quality check. The file contains the alignment of these sequences to a SILVA reference alignment (v.102 from www.mothur.org).RepSeqsOTUsFollowing 454 sequencing of the 16s rDNA region of bacterial communities of 59 samples of attine ants, 993 bacterial OTUs (operational taxonomic units) were identified. The file contains the representative sequences for the 993 OTUs. Each sequence is denoted by a number (1-993) and the original name of the read.mothur commandsCommands used for analysis of 454 sequencing datasets NCBI Sequence Read Archive acc.no. SRA050635.2; 16S rDNA bacterial communities of attine ants. Analyses performed in mother following the Schloss SOP (mothur.org)