Latitudinal cline does not predict variation in the microbiome of wild Drosophila melanogaster

Abstract

Microbiomes affect many aspects of host biology, but the eco-evolutionary forces that shape their diversity in natural populations remain poorly understood. Geographic gradients, like latitudinal clines, generate predictable patterns in biodiversity at macroecological scales, but whether these macro-scale processes apply to host-microbiome interactions is an open question. To address this question, we sampled the microbiomes of 13 natural populations of Drosophila melanogaster along a latitudinal cline in eastern United States. The microbiomes were surprisingly consistent across the cline-latitude did not predict either alpha or beta diversity. Only a narrow taxonomic range of bacteria were present in all microbiomes, indicating that strict taxonomic filtering by the host and neutral ecological dynamics are the primary factors shaping the fly microbiome. Additional temporal sampling across two independent sites revealed significant differences in microbial communities over time, suggesting that local environmental differences that vary at fine spatiotemporal scales are more likely to shape the microbiome. Our findings reveal the complexity of eco-evolutionary interactions shaping microbial variation in D. melanogaster and highlight the need for additional sampling of the microbiomes in natural populations along environmental gradients.