Convergence between the microcosms of Southeast Asian and North American pitcher plants

ELife
Leonora S BittlestonAnne Pringle

Abstract

The 'pitchers' of carnivorous pitcher plants are exquisite examples of convergent evolution. An open question is whether the living communities housed in pitchers also converge in structure or function. Using samples from more than 330 field-collected pitchers of eight species of Southeast Asian Nepenthes and six species of North American Sarracenia, we demonstrate that the pitcher microcosms, or miniature ecosystems with complex communities, are strikingly similar. Compared to communities from surrounding habitats, pitcher communities house fewer species. While communities associated with the two genera contain different microbial organisms and arthropods, the species are predominantly from the same phylogenetic clades. Microbiomes from both genera are enriched in degradation pathways and have high abundances of key degradation enzymes. Moreover, in a manipulative field experiment, Nepenthes pitchers placed in a North American bog assembled Sarracenia-like communities. An understanding of the convergent interactions in pitcher microcosms facilitates identification of selective pressures shaping the communities.

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Citations

Jan 13, 2019·Applied and Environmental Microbiology·Primrose J BoyntonAnne Pringle
Jun 4, 2019·Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences·Timothy B Sackton, Nathan Clark
Mar 20, 2020·Nature Communications·Leonora S BittlestonOtto X Cordero
Mar 23, 2021·BioEssays : News and Reviews in Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology·Joanna M WolfeHeather D Bracken-Grissom
Jul 22, 2021·AoB Plants·Kadeem J Gilbert, Tanya Renner
Jul 27, 2021·Biological Reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society·Maya KaupErik F Y Hom
Nov 25, 2021·Microbiology Spectrum·Scott M YourstoneNikolas M Stasulli

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Datasets Mentioned

BETA
PRJNA448553

Methods Mentioned

BETA
amplicon sequencing
Assay
PCR

Software Mentioned

RAST
PERMANOVAs
Trimmomatic
HUMAnN2
BLAST
adonis
UCLUST
vegan
phyloseq
picante

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