Chemical Ecology of Streptomyces albidoflavus Strain A10 Associated with Carpenter Ant Camponotus vagus

Abstract

Antibiotics produced by symbiotic microorganisms were previously shown to be of crucial importance for ecological communities, including ants. Previous works on ant–actinobacteria symbiosis are mainly focused on farming ants, which use antifungal microbial secondary metabolites to control pathogens in their fungal gardens. In this work, we studied microorganisms associated with carpenter ant Camponotus vagus. Pronounced antifungal activity of isolated actinobacteria strain A10 was found to be facilitated by biosynthesis of the antimycin A complex, consisting of small hydrophobic depsipeptides with high antimicrobial and cytotoxic activity. The actinomycete strain A10 was identified as Streptomyces albidoflavus. We studied the antagonistic activity of strain A10 against several entomopathogenic microorganisms. The antifungal activity of this strain potentially indicates a defensive symbiosis with the host ant, producing antimycins to protect carpenter ants against infections. The nature of this ant-microbe association however remains to be established.

Observation of the Antimicrobial Activities of Two Actinomycetes in the Harvester Ant Messor orientalis

“…Ants are one of the most successful terrestrial species [ 33 ]. Many researchers devoted to screening the high biotechnological potential of ant-associated microorganisms, as well as the significant ecological impact of microbial secondary metabolites [ 5 , 8 , 9 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 34 , 35 , 36 ]. Nonetheless, most studies have mainly focused on ant–fungus–actinomycete tripartite mutualism evolved by leaf-cutting ants, which use antifungal microbial secondary metabolites produced by actinobacteria ( Streptomyces spp., Nocardia spp., Pseudonocardia spp., Amycolatopsis spp., etc.)…”

“…These studies showed that actinomycetes in insects may provide abundant resources for the development of antimicrobial agents. These symbioses are best exemplified in fungus-growing ants [ 5 , 8 , 16 ], carpenter ant [ 17 , 18 , 19 ], solitary digger wasps [ 12 ], and southern pine beetles [ 11 ].…”

Antibiotics from Insect-Associated Actinobacteria

“…Using the above-mentioned criteria and methodology, we identified 71 research papers from 2016 [ 26 , 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 , 42 , 43 , 44 , 45 , 46 , 47 , 48 , 49 , 50 , 51 , 52 , 53 , 54 , 55 , 56 , 57 , 58 , 59 , 60 , 61 , 62 , 63 , 64 , 65 , 66 , 67 , 68 , 69 , 70 , 71 , 72 , 73 , 74 , 75 , 76 , 77 , 78 , 79 , 80 , 81 , 82 , 83 , 84 , 85 , 86 , 87 , 88 , ...…”

“…Well-known cytotoxic dipeptide antimycin A ( 19 ) was isolated from ant-associated Streptomyces albidoflavus A10. At low concentrations, it inhibits the growth of entomopathogenic fungi ( Conidiobolus coronatus , Beauveria bassiana and others) [ 51 ]. Ionophore antibiotics ( 84–88 ) isolated from wasp-associated Streptomyces sp.…”

Probable protective mission of actinomycetes associated with black garden ants, Lasius niger (Linnaeus, 1758) (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)

“…There is an increasing number of recent reports about the isolation of mycelial prokaryote strains from various insects [Baranova et al, 2022], and ants remain the most popular object in this respect. Indeed, it was possible to show the presence of mycelial actinobacteria capable of synthesizing broad-spectrum antibiotics in adult individuals of carpenter and harvester ants [Zakalyukina et al, 2019[Zakalyukina et al, , 2022aBaranova et al, 2020]. Thus, it can be assumed that in the insect world, "protective symbioses" are not a random phenomenon, but an established relationship.…”