Abstract Detail

Recent Topics Posters

Tornquist, Reid [1], Hanes , Margaret Mae [2].

Diving into carnivorous pitcher plants (Sarracenia): Exploring composition and temporal trends in microbial diversity.

Carnivorous pitcher plants in the genus Sarracenia rely on the presence and activity of bacteria to help break down invertebrate prey and to make nitrogen available. The genus represents a well-defined system to address questions in plant-microbe interactions and recent studies have addressed bacterial composition, abundance, productivity and succession. Little is known, however, about the bacterial composition over time in the uniquely longer living leaves of Sarracenia pupurea. Here we use genomic fingerprinting data to investigate how microbial richness changes over a two-year period and address whether larger leaves contain more bacterial diversity than smaller leaves. 448 unique ARISA peaks were recovered in 218 pitchers representing eight phyla and 47 families. ANOSIM analyses suggest that microbial communities differ slightly (and significantly) between each month over the course of two years, however no temporal patterns emerge. We find no correlation between bacterial richness and potential volume of the pitcher. These data were compared with microbial diversity in Sarracenia alata and consistent with other studies on the phyllosphere this work demonstrates that different pitcher plant species harbor distinct microbial communities. This comparison highlights the shared bacterial taxa between Sarracenia species and further supports the suggestion that pitcher plants do not represent random assemblages of bacteria but instead are selecting for microbial communities.

1 - Eastern Michigan University, 401M MJ Science Complex, Ypsilanti, MI, 48197, USA
2 - Eastern Michigan University, 441 Mark Jefferson Science Complex, Ypsilanti, MI, 48197, USA

Keywords:
microbiome
species-area relationship
Sarracenia
Microbial diversity.

Presentation Type: Recent Topics Poster
Session: P, Recent Topics Posters
Location: Exhibit Hall/Savannah International Trade and Convention Center
Date: Monday, August 1st, 2016
Time: 5:30 PM
Number: PRT003
Abstract ID:1171
Candidate for Awards:None