Positive associations matter: Microbial relationships drive tick microbiome composition

Nicholas M. Fountain-Jones, Benedict S. Khoo, Austin Rau, Jesse D. Berman, Erin N. Burton, Jonathan D. Oliver

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

4 Scopus citations

Abstract

Untangling how factors such as environment, host, associations among bacterial species and dispersal predict microbial composition is a fundamental challenge. In this study, we use complementary machine-learning approaches to quantify the relative role of these factors in shaping microbiome variation of the blacklegged tick Ixodes scapularis. I. scapularis is the most important vector for Borrelia burgdorferi (the causative agent for Lyme disease) in the U.S. as well as a range of other important zoonotic pathogens. Yet the relative role of the interactions between pathogens and symbionts compared to other ecological forces is unknown. We found that positive associations between microbes where the occurrence of one microbe increases the probability of observing another, including between both pathogens and symbionts, was by far the most important factor shaping the tick microbiome. Microclimate and host factors played an important role for a subset of the tick microbiome including Borrelia (Borreliella) and Ralstonia, but for the majority of microbes, environmental and host variables were poor predictors at a regional scale. This study provides new hypotheses on how pathogens and symbionts might interact within tick species, as well as valuable predictions for how some taxa may respond to changing climate.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)4078-4092
Number of pages15
JournalMolecular ecology
Volume32
Issue number14
DOIs
StatePublished - Jul 2023

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Authors. Molecular Ecology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Keywords

  • Anaplasma
  • borrelia
  • climate
  • dispersal
  • microbial communities

PubMed: MeSH publication types

  • Journal Article
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

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