Data for: Environments and hosts structure the bacterial microbiomes of fungus-gardening ants and their symbiotic fungus gardens

The fungus gardening-ant system is considered a complex, multi-tiered symbiosis between the ants, their fungus, and microorganisms associated with either ants or fungus. We examine the bacterial microbiome of Trachymyrmex septentrionalis and Mycetomoellerius turrifex ants and their symbiotic fungus garden, using 16S rRNA Illumina sequencing, over a large geographical region. Typically microorganisms can be acquired from a parent colony (vertical transmission) or from the environment (horizontal transmission). Because the symbiosis is characterized by co-dispersal of the ants and fungus, elements of both ant and fungus garden microbiome could be characterized by vertical transmission, for example. The goals of this study were to explore how both the ant and fungus garden bacterial microbiome were acquired. The main findings were that different mechanisms appear to explain the structure the microbiomes of ants and their symbiotic fungus gardens.  Ant associated microbiomes had a strong ho..., We collected up to five ants from each colony of T. septentrionalis and M. turrifex; these ants were pooled into a single DNA extract. Ants were collected directly from inside fungus gardens with ethanol and flame-sterilized forceps. Roughly an equal number of colonies of both species from our samples of the East Texas and Central Texas populations were utilized (N = 13 for T. septentrionalis and N = 11 for M. turrifex). A small sample of fungus garden material was collected similarly with flame and ethanol sterilized forceps from the same garden chambers where the ants were collected. Seven soil samples were taken from within the nest fungal chambers (N = 4 from East Texas and N = 3 from Central Texas) to act as a negative control, and make sure the microbe communities observed with the ant or fungal samples were not a relic of soil contamination. All samples were preserved immediately upon collection in 100% ethanol.   
DNA sequences were amplified from ants, fungus, and soil using pr..., \"OTU_Table_Metadata.csv\" contains both the metadata for each sample (row) and the OTUs present in each sample. The below information can also be found in the \"ReadMe.txt\" file.
Columns 1-6 contain the metadata for each sample. \"Index\" contains the unique identifier given to each sample. \"Type\" determines whether the sample is from an ant, fungal garden material (Fungus), or soil sample. \"Species\" describes whether the sample is associated with T. septentrionalis and M. turrifex. \"Location\" describes the exact site the sample was taken. \"Region\" describes whether the sample was collected in East Texas (East) or Central Texas (Central). \"Clade\" describes the fungal clade (B3, B4, or B5) associated with the fungal garden of each sample's colony. For the samples associated with the one colony that whose fungal garden was not genotyped, the fungal clade is denoted with \"*\".
The remaining columns contain the number of sequences for the OTU, denoted in the top row, for each sample. The OTU lab...