University of South Bohemia, Faculty of Science, Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic.
Central European Institute of Technology (CEITEC), University of Veterinary Sciences, Brno, Czech Republic.
Microbiol Spectr. 2023 Aug 17;11(4):e0168123. doi: 10.1128/spectrum.01681-23. Epub 2023 Jun 8.
The importance of gut microbiomes has become generally recognized in vector biology. This study addresses microbiome signatures in North American species of public health significance (vectors of Trypanosoma cruzi) linked to their blood-feeding strategy and the natural habitat. To place the -associated microbiomes within a complex evolutionary and ecological context, we sampled sympatric populations, related predatory reduviids, unrelated ticks, and environmental material from vertebrate nests where these arthropods reside. Along with five species, we have characterized microbiomes of five reduviids (Stenolemoides arizonensis, Ploiaria hirticornis, Zelus longipes, and two species), a single soft tick species, Ornithodoros turicata, and environmental microbiomes from selected sites in Arizona, Texas, Florida, and Georgia. The microbiomes of predatory reduviids lack a shared core microbiota. As in triatomines, microbiome dissimilarities among species correlate with dominance of a single bacterial taxon. These include , , " Midichloria," and , which are often accompanied by known symbiotic genera, i.e., , " Lariskella," , , and We have further identified a compositional convergence of the analyzed microbiomes in regard to the host phylogenetic distance in both blood-feeding and predatory reduviids. While the microbiomes of the two reduviid species from the Emesinae family reflect their close relationship, the microbiomes of all species repeatedly form a distinct monophyletic cluster highlighting their phylosymbiosis. Furthermore, based on environmental microbiome profiles and blood meal analysis, we propose three epidemiologically relevant and mutually interrelated bacterial sources for microbiomes, i.e., host abiotic environment, host skin microbiome, and pathogens circulating in host blood. This study places microbiomes of blood-feeding North American vectors (Reduviidae) into a broader evolutionary and ecological context provided by related predatory assassin bugs (Reduviidae), another unrelated vector species (soft tick ), and the environment these arthropods coinhabit. For both vectors, microbiome analyses suggest three interrelated sources of bacteria, i.e., the microbiome of vertebrate nests as their natural habitat, the vertebrate skin microbiome, and the pathobiome circulating in vertebrate blood. Despite an apparent influx of environment-associated bacteria into the arthropod microbiomes, microbiomes retain their specificity, forming a distinct cluster that significantly differs from both predatory relatives and ecologically comparable ticks. Similarly, within the related predatory Reduviidae, we found the host phylogenetic distance to underlie microbiome similarities.
肠道微生物组的重要性在媒介生物学中已得到普遍认可。本研究探讨了与北美具有公共卫生意义的物种（克氏锥虫的传播媒介）的血液觅食策略和自然栖息地相关的微生物组特征。为了将与传播疾病有关的微生物组置于复杂的进化和生态背景下，我们从共生的节肢动物种群中取样，包括相关的捕食性盲蝽、无关的蜱和这些节肢动物栖息的脊椎动物巢穴中的环境材料。除了五种 外，我们还对五种盲蝽（Stenolemoides arizonensis、Ploiaria hirticornis、Zelus longipes 和两种 ）、一种单一的软蜱物种 Ornithodoros turicata 以及亚利桑那州、德克萨斯州、佛罗里达州和佐治亚州选定地点的环境微生物组进行了特征描述。捕食性盲蝽的微生物组缺乏共享的核心微生物群。与三锥虫一样，物种间的微生物组差异与单一细菌分类群的优势相关。这些包括 、 、" Midichloria"、和 ，它们通常伴随着已知的共生属，即 、" Lariskella"、 、 。我们还进一步确定了在血液觅食和捕食性盲蝽中，分析的微生物组在宿主系统发育距离方面的组成趋同。虽然来自 Emesinae 科的两种盲蝽物种的微生物组反映了它们的密切关系，但所有 物种的微生物组都形成了一个独特的单系聚类，突出了它们的系统共生关系。此外，基于环境微生物组谱和血液餐分析，我们提出了三个与流行病学相关且相互关联的细菌来源，即宿主非生物环境、宿主皮肤微生物组和宿主血液中循环的病原体。本研究将北美的血液传播 （盲蝽科）的微生物组置于由相关捕食性盲蝽（盲蝽科）、另一种无关的媒介物种（软蜱）和这些节肢动物共同栖息的环境提供的更广泛的进化和生态背景中。对于这两种媒介，微生物组分析表明，细菌有三个相互关联的来源，即脊椎动物巢穴作为其自然栖息地的微生物组、脊椎动物皮肤微生物组和脊椎动物血液中循环的路径生物组。尽管环境相关细菌明显涌入节肢动物微生物组，但 微生物组仍保留其特异性，形成一个与捕食性近亲和生态可比的蜱均显著不同的独特聚类。同样，在相关的捕食性盲蝽科中，我们发现宿主系统发育距离是微生物组相似性的基础。
