The Bacteria of a Fig Microcommunity

Area of Science:

• Microbial ecology and community analysis
• Symbiotic relationships in plant-microbe-animal systems
• Ecological drivers of microbial diversity

Background:

• Understanding microbial diversity drivers is key in microbial ecology.
• Ficus figs offer simple, observable microbial communities.
• Ficus septica figs host the nematode Caenorhabditis inopinata.

Purpose of the Study:

• Characterize the microbial communities within Ficus septica figs.
• Investigate the impact of nematode and wasp occupancy on fig microbial communities.
• Identify specific microbial taxa associated with nematode presence.

Main Methods:

• Collected 38 Ficus septica figs from 12 plants in Taiwan.
• Recorded metadata: foundress wasp number and nematode occupancy.
• Performed 16S microbial metabarcoding on fig interior and surface samples.

Main Results:

• Over 3,000 operational taxonomic units (OTUs) were detected, dominated by Proteobacteria, Bacteroidota, and Actinobacteriota.
• Microbial communities differed between fig exteriors and interiors, but alpha diversity was similar.
• Nematode occupancy did not affect alpha diversity but altered community composition; foundress wasp number negatively correlated with alpha diversity.

Conclusions:

• Fig microbial communities are influenced by location within the fig and wasp presence.
• Nematodes impact microbial composition but not diversity.
• This study provides a foundation for exploring nematode-microbe interactions and testing ecological hypotheses in fig microcommunities.