Abstract
Background: The obligate mutualism between fungus-growing ants and microbial symbionts offers excellent opportunities to study the specificity and stability of multi-species interactions. In addition to cultivating fungus gardens, these ants have domesticated actinomycete bacteria to defend gardens against the fungal parasite Escovopsis and possibly other pathogens. Panamanian Acromyrmex echinatior leaf-cutting ants primarily associate with actinomycetes of the genus Pseudonocardia. Colonies are inoculated with one of two vertically transmitted phylotypes (Ps1 or Ps2), and maintain the same phylotype over their lifetime. We performed a cross-fostering experiment to test whether co-adaptations between ants and bacterial phylotypes have evolved, and how this affects bacterial growth and ant prophylactic behavior after infection with Escovopsis.Results: We show that Pseudonocardia readily colonized ants irrespective of their colony of origin, but that the Ps2 phylotype, which was previously shown to be better able to maintain its monocultural integrity after workers became foragers than Ps1, reached a higher final cover when grown on its native host than on alternative hosts. The frequencies of major grooming and weeding behaviors co-varied with symbiont/host combinations, showing that ant behavior also was affected when cuticular actinomycete phylotypes were swapped.Conclusion: These results show that the interactions between leaf-cutting ants and Pseudonocardia bear signatures of mutual co-adaptation within a single ant population.
Original language | English |
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Article number | 27 |
Journal | B M C Evolutionary Biology |
Volume | 15 |
Issue number | 1 |
Number of pages | 13 |
ISSN | 1471-2148 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2015 |
Keywords
- Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
- Medicine (all)
- Attine ant mutualism
- Cross-fostering
- Host-symbiont coevolution
- Prophylactic defences
- adaptation
- ant
- bacterium
- behavioral response
- coevolution
- colonization
- defense mechanism
- domestication
- experimental study
- host-symbiont interaction
- inoculation
- mutualism
- mycoparasite
- Acromyrmex echinatior
- Actinobacteria (class)
- Atta
- Bacteria (microorganisms)
- Escovopsis
- Formicidae
- Fungi
- Pseudonocardia
- Actinobacteria
- animal
- growth, development and aging
- Hypocreales
- microbiology
- physiology
- plant leaf
- symbiosis
- Animals
- Ants
- Plant Leaves
- Symbiosis
- EVOLUTIONARY
- GENETICS
- FUNGUS-GROWING ANTS
- ATTINE ANT
- MUTUALISTIC BACTERIA
- ACROMYRMEX-OCTOSPINOSUS
- ACTINOMYCETE BACTERIA
- MICROBE SYMBIOSIS
- EVOLUTION
- COEVOLUTION
- AGRICULTURE
- ASSOCIATION
- bacterial growth
- bacterial phylotype
- grooming behavior
- interaction specificity
- microbial symbiosis
- monocultural integrity
- multi-species interaction
- obligate mutualism
- prophylactic behavior
- symbiont/host combination
- symbiotic interaction
- weeding behavior
- Fungi Plantae (Fungi, Microorganisms, Nonvascular Plants, Plants) - Fungi Imperfecti or Deuteromycetes [15500] Escovopsis genus pathogen
- Insecta Arthropoda Invertebrata Animalia (Animals, Arthropods, Insects, Invertebrates) - Hymenoptera [75326] Acromyrmex echinatior species leaf-cutting ant common pathogen
- Nocardioform Actinomycetes Actinomycetes and Related Organisms Eubacteria Bacteria Microorganisms (Bacteria, Eubacteria, Microorganisms) - Pseudonocardiaceae [08812] Pseudonocardia genus
- 07002, Behavioral biology - General and comparative behavior
- 07003, Behavioral biology - Animal behavior
- 31000, Physiology and biochemistry of bacteria
- 64076, Invertebrata: comparative, experimental morphology, physiology and pathology - Insecta: physiology
- Behavior
- Infection