Microbiome Data on Symbiotic Bacteria in Sucking Lice

A dataset from Sewanee: The University of the South describes a novel symbiotic bacterial lineage related to Neisseria and Snodgrassella discovered in sucking lice. The data was generated by combining metagenomics and amplicon screening across populations of two louse genera, Polyplax and Hoplopleura. It reveals a complex history of symbiont acquisition, loss, and replacement during louse evolution.

Use Cases

• Phylogenetic analysis based on the described novel bacterial lineage.
• Comparative genomics based on the highly similar symbiont genomes found in different lice genera.
• Studying symbiont replacement dynamics based on the described replacement of an older obligate symbiont in Hoplopleura acanthopus.
• Analyzing microbiome composition and abundance based on the co-occurrence and distribution patterns of different bacterial symbionts.

Strengths

• Data is derived from a combination of metagenomics and amplicon screening across several host populations.
• Findings describe a novel bacterial lineage and reveal distinct functional roles and histories for symbionts in related lice genera.

Limitations

• Row count and dataset size are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Last update date is unknown; freshness unverified.

Provenance

Source

Sewanee: The University of the South

Collection Method

Metagenomics and amplicon screening across populations of Polyplax and Hoplopleura lice genera.